“The president should not be able to use the power and influence of his office to benefit his own crypto holdings while his administration makes decisions that could directly affect their value,” said Senator Mark Warner, one of the Democrats who worked on the illicit-finance portions of the bill and said he really wanted to vote yes on it. “At a minimum, any serious crypto legislation must include meaningful ethics requirements that prevent the president and other senior government officials from profiting off the policies they oversee.”
But the Democrats said they were making an effort to continue talks down to the wire, and they were rebuffed by Republicans who shut down the negotiation and proceeded with the vote. (The vote didn’t have to happen on Tuesday afternoon, and it could have been shifted by Republican leaders if there were still a chance for negotiations.)
“Just as Democrats and Republicans were making progress to address ethics concerns, Republican leadership ended talks and forced a vote,” said Democrat Senator Ruben Gallego in a statement after the Tuesday vote. “They were never serious about bipartisan negotiations.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters much the same on Tuesday.
“As you may have heard, there was a bipartisan deal on the table as recently as this afternoon to resolve all outstanding items including ethics,” Schumer said. “Republican leadership walked into the room, broke up the bipartisan discussion and said, ‘No, we’re done’ and killed it.”
