Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) on Wednesday slammed a current GOP push to deliver stablecoin laws to the ground, accusing Republicans of making an attempt to drive a vote earlier than ending negotiations with Democrats.
“You can’t throw us in the corner,” he stated in an interview with MeidasTouch. “You can’t try to f— us and then say like, ‘Hey, deal with it.’ That’s just not going to work, especially when you still need our votes no matter what.”
Gallego and eight different crypto-friendly Democrats who beforehand backed the GENIUS Act pulled their assist for the invoice over the weekend, after Senate Majority Chief John Thune (R-S.D.) moved to expedite a vote final week.
The GENIUS Act is the Senate’s model of laws to create a regulatory framework for cost stablecoins, cryptocurrencies which might be tied to property just like the U.S. greenback to keep up a extra steady worth.
The invoice superior out of the Senate Banking Committee in March, with the assist of 5 Democrats, together with Gallego, who serves as rating member on the Digital Belongings Subcommittee.
Nevertheless, the Arizona Democrat emphasised Wednesday that he and his colleagues voted the GENIUS Act out of committee within the “spirit of bipartisanship,” with the hope of constructing additional changes to the laws.
“All of sudden, the language changed,” Gallego stated of the brand new ground textual content launched final Thursday. “They backtracked on some of the stuff we had already approved. They weren’t even moving forward with further legislation. And then they announced the date of the first vote.”
“I think the purpose of that was really to put Democrats in a bad position and force us to vote for it,” he continued.
Gallego and the eight others who pulled their assist for the invoice argued that it lacks sufficiently sturdy provisions on anti-money laundering, nationwide safety and a bunch of different points.
“I just cannot allow them to just jam us and pass bad legislation that has open loopholes that would create really bad situations for consumers, for investors, all these kind of things,” he stated.
“Especially when we’re here,” he added. “We’re here to work. We’re here to speak and try to come up with a good bipartisan bill. But don’t try to f— us on it. That’s not going to happen.”
