The Senate crossed a procedural hurdle on a stablecoin bill Monday, mustering enough Democratic supporters to get to the 60-vote threshold needed to invoke cloture on a motion to proceed to the bill despite the opposition of the Senate Banking Committee’s ranking member.
The 66-32 vote drew support from 16 Democrats, including a handful from the Senate Banking Committee who supported the bill in committee, but who defected in a May 8 cloture vote on a motion to proceed. They said it lacked sufficient anti-money-laundering and consumer protections.
Three of those defectors were back on board Monday: Sens. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., the ranking member of the Senate Banking Digital Assets Subcommittee; along with Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va.; and Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del. Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., who supported the bill in committee, voted against the procedural move Monday.
“After weeks of negotiations, we are headed in a direction that addresses many of the concerns my colleagues and I have raised both in committee and with our Republican colleagues,” Gallego said in a statement before the vote. “With this vote, I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues to achieve a final bill that protects consumers and ensures America remains a leader in digital asset innovation.”
Sens. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., a supporter in committee, and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., an opponent in committee, supported the move Monday to end debate on whether to take up the bill.
Another committee Democrat, Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia initially voted to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed but changed his vote to “no.” Afterward, he walked swiftly past reporters, saying, “They have cloture.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Warner gave early indications that the latest attempt would have the needed votes.
“Stablecoins are already playing an important role in the global economy, and it is essential that the U.S. enact legislation that protects consumers, while also enabling responsible innovations,” Gillibrand said Friday in a statement with Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., the bill’s sponsor. “The crafting of this bill has been a true bipartisan effort and I’m optimistic we can pass it in the coming days.”
“Next week, the Senate will make history when we debate and pass the GENIUS Act that establishes the first ever pro-growth regulatory framework for payment stablecoins,” Hagerty said in the statement with Gillibrand.
Warner also said he backed the legislation and an aide said he was trying to build support.
But Senate Banking ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was still urging Democrats to oppose the measure Monday. The panel’s minority staff put out a fact sheet over the weekend saying “the current bill is worse than no bill at all.”
Throughout the vote, Warren and Hagerty hovered in the Senate well near their parties’ respective desks, talking to colleagues.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., chided Democrats for the delay.
“The bill brought up a week and a half ago is the exact same bill that Democrats apparently now are willing to move forward on,” he said in a floor speech. “And then, as now, Republicans were committed to a full debate on the floor — with the chance for further bipartisan amendment to the already bipartisan piece of legislation. So it’s really hard to understand why we needed to wait an additional 11 days for Democrats to finally agree to move.”
The bill, dubbed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, would facilitate issuance of stablecoins, which are digital currencies pegged to a reserve asset, in this case, the U.S. dollar. The legislation would require issuers to maintain liquid reserves of safe investments such as U.S. Treasury debt, insured deposits and overnight Treasury repurchase agreements. Depending on the nature of the issuer, the regulator could be a federal or state supervisory agency.
Democrats involved in the negotiations touted in a memo last week the advances they made to strengthen consumer protections and enforcement, raise standards for foreign issuers, tighten anti-money-laundering provisions and make other improvements. The memo said several issues remained outstanding.
Warren’s committee staff analysis says the revised bill contains weak provisions on consumer protection, foreign and big-tech-firm issuers, oversight, bankruptcy and ethics and conflicts of interest.
She and other Democrats have strong reservations about passing the stablecoins bill given what they call President Donald Trump’s egregious conflicts centering on his family’s involvement with firms that have issued a memecoin and a stablecoin.
“The GENIUS Act not only fails to apply any safeguards that would prevent the President and his family from continuing to profit off his stablecoin and other crypto ventures, it also turbocharges his corruption by expanding the reach of his stablecoin, which is already the 5th-largest stablecoin in the world and being used by foreign government-backed investment funds to curry favor,” the staff analysis says.
The crypto industry has been pushing for a stablecoins bill as well as related legislation that would set broad rules for the offering, trading and oversight of digital assets, known as market structure. Representatives of industry groups say the Senate measure would provide crucial regulatory clarity.
Crypto firms and interest groups spent about $140 million in the 2024 elections to support pro-crypto candidates, most of whom prevailed in their races. Now, they’re watching to see what Congress does legislatively.
“The industry perceives this as a bellwether moment,” said Jason Allegrante, chief legal and compliance officer at Fireblocks, digital-assets software provider. “If the [Senate stablecoins] bill doesn’t pass, it’s the death of stablecoins and market structure.”
The House Financial Services Committee approved in early April a stablecoins bill that is similar to the Senate version. The panel also has introduced a discussion draft of a market structure bill.
Niels Lesniewski contributed to this report.
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