U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune reportedly said he doesn’t expect the chamber to move forward on legislation establishing a digital asset market structure before April.
According to a Thursday report from Punchbowl News, Thune he said that the Senate planned to prioritize voting on the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require voters to present proof of U.S. citizenship in person to register.
Majority leader addressed reporters said Thursday that the bill would go to the House next week, adding that lawmakers would focus on the Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act and other bipartisan bills after the vote on the SAVE America Act.
“Market structure is a bill that I hope will be introduced to the Banking Committee soon, probably no earlier than, I would say, April,” Thune said, according to Punchbowl.
The majority leader’s statement contradicted comments from Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno, who in February expressed hope that the market structure would pass Congress by April. The Senate Agriculture Committee has already introduced its version of the bill, but the Senate Banking Committee deferred January amendments needed to combine the provisions before a majority vote.
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In a separate lawsuit, the Senate voted Thursday to include an amendment to the housing bill, the Pathway to 21st Century Housing Act, to prohibit the U.S. Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. If passed and signed into law, the CBDC ban will last until December 2030.
What is the draft law on market structure about?
The legislation, called the CLARITY Act, which passed the House of Representatives in July, is expected to give the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the financial agency that oversees derivatives and commodities, greater power to oversee digital assets. However, many lawmakers in the Senate took issue with key provisions of the bill, including tokenized stocks, ethics and the viability of stablecoins.
Last week, US President Donald Trump accused banks of holding the bill “hostage” in social media posts. Although the White House had held three meetings between crypto and banking industry representatives, it was still unclear as of Thursday whether policymakers had reached any agreement to pass the Market Structure Act.
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