The U.S. House of Representatives, after two days of deadlock, narrowly passed a procedural vote on Wednesday evening, allowing three cryptocurrency regulation bills to enter formal debate.
On Wednesday, the House passed the rules of procedure by a vote of 217 to 212, paving the way for the three cryptocurrency regulation bills to be included in the debate agenda. The rules faced strong opposition from within the Republican party on Tuesday, leading to a two-day stalemate in the agenda. It wasn’t until Wednesday evening that some Republican members who had previously voted “no” changed their stance to support, finally advancing the bills.
The vote lasted over 8 hours, setting a record for the “longest open vote” in modern history of the House, breaking the record set earlier this month.
The three bills are the GENIUS Act, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, which aims to establish regulatory frameworks for stablecoins based on the U.S. dollar and was passed by the Senate in June; the CLARITY Act, or Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which seeks to delineate the regulatory roles of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in regulating crypto assets; and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, which advocates for banning the issuance of central bank digital currencies by the Federal Reserve.
The deadlock started on Tuesday when 12 hardline Republican members voted against the procedural rules, blocking the progress of the bills and stalling the overall agenda.
To resolve the internal deadlock, former President Trump met with 12 conservative Republican members in the Oval Office of the White House on Tuesday night to negotiate their voting positions.
As a compromise, Trump agreed to incorporate the provision banning central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) into the CLARITY Act. This compromise aimed to address long-standing concerns of hardliners about CBDCs. They believed that these cryptocurrency regulation bills could lay the groundwork for the federal government to issue digital currencies.
Trump’s concession seemed to successfully alleviate some concerns, leading many members who had originally opposed the bills to turn their support.
After the meeting, Trump posted on his platform, “Truth Social,” stating that all attendees “unanimously agreed to vote in support of” the relevant procedural rules.
However, Wednesday’s progress was still turbulent.
During a vote on a procedural step allowing reconsideration of the rules, Republican representatives Chip Roy, Keith Self, and Marjorie Taylor Greene initially voted against, but later switched to support at the last minute, allowing the process to move forward.
When a vote was taken on the rules themselves, Roy and Greene again voted against, along with Bill Huizenga, Vice Chair of the House Financial Services Committee from Michigan.
During hours of negotiations, House Speaker Mike Johnson did not announce the end of the vote. Ultimately, when Republican leadership agreed to incorporate the “anti-CBDC” provision into the National Defense Authorization Act, dissenting members shifted to support, enabling the rules to pass.
The National Defense Authorization Act is a legislative process that must be passed annually, and if the provision is not removed from the final version by both chambers, it is likely to take effect.
The only Republican who remained steadfast in voting against was Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“We had a very constructive meeting tonight, everyone participated in good faith, and our priorities are aligned. I am pleased that this matter has advanced, and so is the President,” Johnson said.
“I just spoke with him (Trump), apparently this is a priority for him, as it is for us,” he said.
“We have broken the deadlock, allowing us to continue our work. Sometimes it may take a bit longer, but that’s the process: we build consensus, and tonight we did, and I am satisfied,” he said.
Although the House has passed the procedural threshold, the legislative prospects of the three cryptocurrency bills still remain uncertain.
The fate of the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act in the Senate and the potential for amendments or further negotiations on the CLARITY Act are still unknown.
This internal tug-of-war has also left the cryptocurrency industry disappointed. The industry had provided millions of dollars in political donations to House members in the last election cycle, hoping that “Crypto Week” would drive a clear regulatory framework, but now it is facing obstacles due to procedural disputes and policy differences.