Two weeks ago at an event called "Crypto4Harris" Senator Leader Chuck Schumer came out and said he supported and thought a crypto bill could pass the Senate this year. Sounds great right? Finally, someone is doing something?!? Well of course there are some pretty key things I can only guess he forgot about when it comes to this issue.
1) Already Passed Legislation
The House has already passed Crypto Legislation waiting for the Senate with the FIT21 Act being arguably the biggest one. With the FIT21 Act, 71 Democrats crossed the aisle to vote in favor of the bill's passage. That is huge, especially in a Congress dividend like this one. However, Schumer himself has not done anything with this legislation. He has not sent it to any Committees or even given it floor time in the months since it passed the House and this is just one of 5 crypto bills that has passed the House and been sent to the Senate.
2) Administrative Pushback
Every Crypto Bill the Senate even talks about introducing or voting on gets pulled and is either never introduced or is never voted on. This is in large part due to the Admin not being happy with it over even the slightest detail or someone like SEC Head Gary Gensler making public his criticisms with the legislation language. Now this leads into number 3 the Left Flank of the Democratic Senate.
3) Democratic Senators
If the Admin or regulators don't cause the issues then the issues are caused by the extremely vocal Members on the left like Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown (who is up for reelection in Wisconson and faces an uphill battle in part due to crypto money pouring in against him). Much like the issues that have dogged the Republican Leadership this year with getting their Members in order Schumer has failed to get his Members to start the legislation process in the Senate. If you can't even get the process started how are you planning on passing anything of substance through?
4) Time
The Senate, by design, is supposed to take longer with any legislation especially significant changes that any crypto legislation entails. We have 39 days of session left this Congress (a little over 8 weeks spread between September, November (after the elections), and December) which is practically no time to do anything of substance. You also have to factor in that not a single funding bill has been passed by both sides and signed into law meaning the government once more "shuts down" on September 30th. Without a miracle, September will be occupied with appropriations legislation and a lame-duck Government esp. given all that could change is highly likely to not work together to pass anything major.
Given these issues and working on The Hill I wish I knew what Schumer seems to know to magically overcome all of the obstacles in record-setting time. When you look at the situation and look at how difficult it is to move stuff (the House has been working on a Stablecoin Bill for 3 years now) I do not see how he could reasonably expect this. Once more it just seems that a Member of Congress is writing checks that the has no way of passing.