The U.S. House of Representatives stalled out on a procedural vote to advance to a final poll on key crypto legislation Wednesday, after passing an earlier procedural motion.
The House voted earlier Wednesday to reconsider debate on a motion to set how the chamber would move forward on the bills after that rules motion saw a hiccup Tuesday when the House Freedom Caucus voted against advancing to debate and a final vote. While the rules motion is procedural, a majority of lawmakers need to vote in favor before the House can vote on the actual bills.
Wednesday’s vote should have meant that the Clarity Act, GENIUS Act and Anti-CBDC Surveillance Act will all receive final votes, potentially starting as soon as later in the day. The first procedural measure passed 217-215, but the second one remained open as of press time, more than 100 minutes after it began.
The issue lies in the stablecoin bill. While the House of Representatives has its own stablecoin bill, the STABLE Act, it’s going to vote on the Senate version, the GENIUS Act.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus took issue with not having input into the stablecoin bill, voting against the motion on Tuesday. On Tuesday evening, U.S. President Donald Trump said he had spoken to 11 of those lawmakers and convinced them to vote for the procedural motion.
Politico reported that the deal he made was to merge the anti-CBDC bill with the Clarity Act, the House’s market structure bill. A person familiar with the situation told CoinDesk that doing so would likely lose support from some Democrats.
The votes are scheduled as part of Congress’s “Crypto Week,” and the major bills — the market structure and stablecoin legislation — are expected to receive bipartisan support. While the market structure bill will need to go to the Senate if it’s passed, the stablecoin bill would go to Trump’s desk for his signature.
The next vote series in the House was originally scheduled for 5:00 p.m. ET, according to a schedule shared by Minority Whip Katherine Clark earlier Wednesday, but it’s unclear if the House can still meet that deadline. Last week, CoinDesk reported that the House planned to vote on its market structure bill by Wednesday, and the stablecoin bill should see a vote Thursday morning.
The person familiar told CoinDesk that the House’s leadership did not confer with the Republican conference before dubbing this week “Crypto Week,” and did not receive adequate feedback as a result, leading to this week’s results.