Lummis, Key U.S. Senator on Crypto Bill, Negotiating Dicey Points With White House

A Republican U.S. senator who has been at the center of talks over the crypto market structure bill that’s the industry’s top policy priority, Senator Cynthia Lummis, said that the White House has resisted ethics language she hashed out with Democrats.

That’s left the Wyoming lawmaker as a go-between trying to satisfy Democratic colleagues in the bipartisan talks while convincing the White House to come along, she said Tuesday at the Blockchain Association’s policy summit in Washington. Still, she thinks the negotiators should reveal their working draft by the end of the week and formally mark it up next week.

Lummis said that she and Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego had come up with some language on ethics. While she wasn’t explicit about details, one of the sticking points for Democrats has been their demand that top government officials shouldn’t be allowed to profit from the industry over which they hold policy authority — pointedly aimed mostly at President Donald Trump and his family’s crypto businesses.

She said the Democrats are also trying to get assurances that members of their party will be nominated as commissioners at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, which the White House has so far declined to do, despite the laws’ intent for bipartisan commissions.

“The White House kicked it back and said, ‘You can do better than this,’ so it was unacceptable to the White House,” she said. Lummis said she’s gathering with colleagues again “to take another run at it.”

Lummis is the chair of the digital assets subcommittee that’s part of the Senate Banking Committee — one of two panels that needs to sign off on a bill, also including the Agriculture Committee.

“It’s just time to reveal a product,” she said, though she acknowledged that the legislative language is changing rapidly. “We are at prime time now. We’re in the last two weeks.”

The industry is getting antsy after weeks of closed-door talks that haven’t involved outside input, she suggested.

“This product is going to be so strong when we finish,” said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the Democrat who has acted as Lummis’ crypto partner for years. “Because even the House didn’t tackle all of the issues we’re tackling with this draft. They didn’t even address decentralized finance exchanges,” she said, referring to the Clarity Act the House approved earlier this year.