Crypto Legislation's “Breakthrough” Blocked: Bill Merger Controversies Ignite Deep Divides
Source: Web3 Practitioner
Original title: US Cryptocurrency Legislation Is at an impasse: Bill Merger Disputes and Deep Wrestling with Political Games
The stalemate between Republican hardliners in the US House of Representatives over crypto-related legislation continues.
This week, as Congress's designated “Crypto Week,” was originally planned to review three key bills, including the “CLARITY Act” and “GENIUS Act” — all of which are strong legislative agendas supported by President Trump. However, as of Wednesday, the relevant procedural voting was still suspended, and negotiations continued in a multi-party game.
The turning point of events began Tuesday evening: after meeting with some hardline lawmakers at the White House, Trump claimed to have persuaded them to support the advancement of legislation; on Wednesday, after final negotiations with the House leadership, these hardline lawmakers returned to the legislative promotion camp, enabling the House of Representatives to initiate the first procedural step of relevant legislation.
But the core of the controversy surfaced: the agreement reached between the hardliners and Trump clearly called for merging the CLARITY Act, which focuses on market structures, with another bill aimed at prohibiting central banks from issuing digital currencies (CBDCs).
The decision immediately sparked strong discontent among members of the bill drafting committee.
According to two anonymous sources familiar with the matter, the crux of the impasse is that hardliners are anxious to ensure that the CBDC ban is implemented, while committee members are concerned that this kind of “bundled legislation” will cause the two bills to die together due to a combination of disputes.
To break the impasse, the parties are exploring a compromise path: remove the CBDC ban and attach it to “must pass” priority laws, such as the annual National Defense Authorization Act or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Power Renewal Act, to avoid the risk of passing a single bill.
Up to now, more than 10 Republican lawmakers have yet to say anything about the “regular vote” on the legislative debate process, including Agriculture Committee Chairman Thompson and Financial Services Committee Chairman Frankie Hill — two of whom were still meeting with House Speaker Johnson on Wednesday afternoon. House Majority Leader Steve Scalis has confirmed that the leadership plans to vote on the bill separately and then push for merger; the House Rules Committee also held a hearing on Wednesday afternoon to begin this process.
summed
The current cryptocurrency legislation impasse is essentially a concentrated expression of the “issue priority game” and “cross-party balance” in the US political ecosystem. Hardliners see the CBDC ban as a core claim to defend financial sovereignty and try to use the CLARITY Act's momentum to achieve bundling implementation; while committee members and Democratic Party supporters are more concerned about the viability of the legislation and worry that excessive ideologization will bury a rare opportunity to standardize the crypto market.
Looking at the process, even though the leadership has proposed a “share first, cooperate later” strategy, the lack of statements from key members of parliament and the risk of passing it by the Senate still make the final direction of the “Crypto Week” legislation full of variables. This impasse not only reflects differences of ideas in the construction of the US crypto regulatory framework, but also reveals the restrictions that political games have on the efficiency of financial legislation — the results will directly affect the standardization process of the US cryptocurrency market and the direction of the evolution of the global crypto regulatory landscape.
