Al Drago/Bloomberg
WASHINGTON — Many amendments that would have addressed
Lawmakers passed the stablecoin bill — called the GENIUS Act – out of committee in an 18-6 vote. All Republicans voted in favor, alongside Democratic Sens. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, Any Kim of California, Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Mark Warner of Virginia.
The committee did attach by unanimous consent at the beginning of the markup a managers package, which clarifies — among other things — at least one of the asks from the banking industry: The bill’s intention to maintain the status quo as it relates to master account access at the Federal Reserve.
Democratic lawmakers proposed a number of amendments, some of which were based on concerns outlined by banks to senators, including one offered by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., that would expressly limit the activities of stablecoin issuers to activities that directly support the work of issuing and redeeming stablecoins.
They were voted down uniformly by Republicans. Each vote on the amendments, aside from the manager’s package, fell strictly along party lines.
“It looks like to me, the die is already cast — you get what you get,” Cortez Masto said.
Bank trades repeated concerns that they had with the legislative draft introduced before the manager’s amendment was adopted.
“We appreciate many of the changes that have been made to the legislation since its initial draft was shared and remain hopeful that any final legislation will avoid incentivizing a flow of deposits out of the banking system and protect the fundamental role that banks play in intermediating credit and powering the economy,” said the American Bankers Association in a statement after the markup.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the ranking member of the panel, complained that at many points when Democratic lawmakers including herself were introducing amendments, there were barely any Republicans in the room.
“This is a show trial,” Warren said. “We get up and we read our little part about each of the Republicans, and clearly a majority of Republicans have already decided their vote without even hearing anyone make an argument.”
She referenced amendments offered by herself, one of which would have required the Treasury Department to study the bill’s impacts on community banks and another that would sunset the law if it was found to be too negative. A number of amendments offered by Cortez Masto were supported by small bankers.
“Are we really not going to have a discussion about what it means to issue stablecoins and what the impact will be on community bankers?” Warren said.
Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., praised what he called a bipartisan process, and applauded a “return to regular order,” referencing the relative lack of banking legislation that’s gone through the committee in the last few years.
“When I became Chairman of this Committee, I promised that we would return to regular order,” Scott said. “Now for those of you unfamiliar with regular order, as I am, it’s been like seven or eight years since we’ve actually had a markup in this committee. So, it is ridiculous in one way, and frankly remarkable in another way, that we are returning to regular order.”
A spokesperson for Scott later clarified that he misspoke when he said seven or eight years, given that he and former Chairman Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, held two markups in 2023.
“Chairman Scott has been working to return the committee to regular order since taking over as Ranking Member last Congress,” the spokesman said.
Cortez Masto said that the bill was a good start, but not ready for “prime time.”
“I would hope that you would remain open still to include provisions that we can agree on together based on what we’re still hearing from folks in the industry,” she told Scott. “If you’re willing to do that, that would make me really feel much better about today’s process, which looks like clearly has already been set in stone.”
The committee also passed another bill, one that would prohibit bank regulators from considering reputational risk, in a party-line vote, 13-11, to the full Senate.
