US Senator Majority Leader John Thune reportedly said he does not expect the House to move forward with legislation to establish the structure of the digital asset market before April.
According to a Thursday report from Punchbowl News, Thune said the Senate planned to prioritize voting on the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require voters to present proof of U.S. citizenship in person to register.
The majority leader addressed reporters on Thursday saying the bill would move to the House next week, adding that lawmakers would focus on the crypto market structure bill and other bipartisan bills after the vote on the SAVE America Act.
“Market structure is a bill that I hope will come out of the Banking Committee soon, probably not before, I would say, April,” Thune said, according to Punchbowl.
The majority leader’s statement contradicted comments by Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno, who said in February that he expected the market structure to pass Congress in April. The Senate Agriculture Committee already advanced its version of the bill, but the Senate Banking Committee postponed a January window needed to combine the legislation before a floor vote.
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In separate action, the Senate voted Thursday to include an amendment in a housing bill, the 21st Century Housing Pathway Act, that prohibits the U.S. Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. If passed and signed into law, the CBDC ban would remain in effect until December 2030.
What is at stake in the market structure bill?
The legislation, called the CLARITY Act when it passed the House of Representatives in July, is expected to give the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the financial agency that oversees derivatives and commodities, more authority to oversee digital assets. However, many Senate lawmakers have taken issue with key provisions of the bill, including tokenized stocks, ethics, and the performance of stablecoins.
Last week, US President Donald Trump accused banks of holding the bill “hostage” in social media posts. Although the White House has held three meetings between crypto and banking industry representatives, as of Thursday it was still unclear whether policymakers had reached any kind of agreement that would allow the market structure bill to move forward.
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