The U.S. House of Representatives Passed a Procedural Motion to Restart Consideration of the GENIUS Act and Cryptocurrency Bills
On July 16 local time, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a procedural motion with a vote of 215 in favor and 211 against, calling for the reconsideration of a proposal related to cryptocurrencies that includes the GENIUS Act, the CLARITY Act, and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance Act. This motion also provides a 'second chance' for the consideration of this series of bills.
The background of this event is that the day before (July 15), House leaders attempted to bundle the GENIUS Act, the CLARITY Act, and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance Act with the annual defense appropriations into a single package to advance the legislation. However, this attempt encountered resistance, and the bundling proposal was ultimately rejected.
Libertarians and members of the House Freedom Caucus opposed this bundling approach, calling for separate debates and votes on each bill. Some representatives sought to completely ban Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in the U.S. and considered the CLARITY Act equally important, urging opponents to 'immediately address this issue'.
Despite the initial attempt failing, the matter is not entirely over. On July 16 local time, the House passed the procedural motion to re-bundle the three bills by a margin of 4 votes, but since the motion itself does not constitute formal statutory provisions, it will not be directly submitted to the President for signing.
Next, the leaders of the House and Senate will face various options: they can handle these bills separately, incorporate them into other ongoing legislative projects, or choose to draft a new merged bill that both chambers can accept for final submission to the President. Regardless of the path chosen, the core objective is to transform these bills into promulgable legislation so that they can effectively come into force.
Overall, this process will determine the final fate of these cryptocurrency-related bills, and its outcome will have a profound impact on the direction of U.S. policy in the digital asset space.
