The U.S. Senate faces a Tuesday procedural vote on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, but Senator Cynthia Lummis says Democrats keep asking for more changes even after Republicans circulated what they called a final compromise. Lummis says she has made a series of concessions over more than five years of negotiation and has nothing left to give.
The Senate is poised to vote Tuesday on whether to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, and Senator Cynthia Lummis says Democrats are still pushing for further changes even after Republicans circulated what they called a final compromise proposal over the weekend. The Wyoming Republican has been one of the lead sponsors of the bill for more than five years.
At a Washington event on Monday, Lummis said Democrats keep asking for more and would keep asking even if lawmakers waited another month, adding that the demands never seem to end.
A last concession on DeFi protections
Speaking at a Washington summit hosted by the Solana Policy Institute, Lummis recounted the difficulty of making a major personal concession on legal protections for decentralized finance (DeFi) developers in the bill's final draft. She praised her Democratic negotiating partner, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, but said the process has produced a series of major concessions to Democrats, which she tallied at 114 individual policy points.
One of those points became the bill's political pivot: a section curtailing government officials' ability to maintain personal business connections with the crypto industry, aimed mainly at President Donald Trump. Lummis said she was surprised when Trump agreed to a second pass at those ethics constraints, reflected in this week's draft, after Democrats again asked for more.
Vote count still uncertain
Lummis said she did not know whether Tuesday's vote would reach the 60 yes votes needed to advance the bill in the Senate. The industry event on Monday was abuzz with lobbyists speculating on the odds of passage, and even the most optimistic framed the chances as narrow.
As word spread that Democratic lawmakers had gathered to discuss the latest version of the bill, the crowd waited for any hint of the outcome. Lummis said that when she landed in Washington after traveling from her Wyoming ranch, her staff told her Democrats were asking for further revisions. She said the bill is as good as it's going to get and that Democrats should embrace it: "My tank is empty."
Source: CoinDesk
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