A group of Democrat Senators said in a statement late Wednesday that the bill still fell “short” of where it needed to be to get their support, but that they would keep working on it with Republicans. Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, argued Wednesday that the policy as written would let Trump continue his crypto businesses largely untouched, and any improper activity would be ignored by his loyal Department of Justice and then legally fenced off from prosecution once he leaves office.
Other outstanding issues
Beyond ethics, lawmakers may continue to negotiate over illicit finance provisions, Lummis said.
“We think we’ve landed in a good place,” she said, because the effort addresses the Bank Secrecy Act, money-laundering protections, sanction coverage for exchanges and decentralized finance (DeFi).
Some of the new additions were made at the request of law enforcement, such as a provision addressing crypto automated teller machine (ATM) fraud.
There is also a safe harbor for crypto platforms to freeze funds if they suspect the assets are tied to suspicious transactions, particularly if those companies are cooperating with law enforcement, she said.
The text also includes a provision saying it is the “sense of Congress” that at least two of the commissioners on the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission would be nominated in consultation with the minority party. Right now, neither agency has any Democratic commissioners, with the SEC helmed by three Republicans, while the CFTC just has a single commissioner running the agency.