The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee is holding its first hearing on cryptocurrency market structure legislation, giving lawmakers a chance to debate and vote on amendments and potentially advance actual legislation.
At Thursday’s hearing, lawmakers will propose amendments to the basic text released by the committee last week. While senators are working on bipartisan legislation, committee Chairman John Bozeman said in a statement last week that “fundamental differences on policy” remain and committee members have yet to agree on released text.
Democratic Senator Cory Booker, who is leading negotiations on the bill, said in his opening remarks that lawmakers are close to agreement on key issues, pointing to U.S. President Donald Trump and his family’s cryptocurrency ties as a prominent area of concern and the lack of clear agreement among federal agencies on quorums.
“In football terms, we moved 70 yards all the way down from our own goal line. We were pretty much in the red zone on the bill, and it frustrated me because I saw the two-way glide path to land this plane and get through the end zone,” Booker said.
In his opening remarks, Bozeman said lawmakers had made “really significant progress” on crafting the bill.
“Advancing this bill is a first step, there are many more steps to achieve these goals,” he said. “I also encourage administration and Senate leadership to coordinate and ensure that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is fully constituted and fully funded.”
