GENIUS Act Back on Track After Presidential Pow-Wow with Republican Holdouts

The US crypto legislative agenda appears to be back on track after lawmakers voted on Wednesday, July 16, in favour of progressing three crypto bills to a full House of Representatives vote in the future, possibly as soon as this week. 

The legislation had been derailed by a shock vote in the House on Tuesday that saw several Republicans cross the floor to vote with the Democrats to oppose the progress of the three bills, including the Guiding and Establishing Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act.

The about-face came after Republican lawmakers who sided with Democrats in opposing the passage of the GENIUS Act met with President Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday evening.

“I am in the Oval Office with 11 of the 12 Congressmen/women necessary to pass the GENIUS Act and, after a short discussion, they have all agreed to vote tomorrow morning in favor of the Rule,” Trump wrote on his personal social media platform, Truth Social, at around 9 p.m. US Eastern time.

Trump added that the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, attended the meeting remotely and told the President he “looks forward to taking the Vote as early as possible.”

The next day, lawmakers voted 215-211 to progress the legislation to a full House vote. This result keeps alive the possibility that the GENIUS Act could wind up on President Trump’s desk to be signed into law before the end of this week, which Trump has previously dubbed ‘Crypto Week’.

The Wednesday vote also saw the House agree to proceed with the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, also known as the Clarity Act, which aims to clarify the structure of digital asset markets and establish clear jurisdictional boundaries for both the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in their regulation of crypto. 

The House also agreed to a later vote on a bill that proposes barring the Federal Reserve from issuing a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC).

All Democratic lawmakers opposed the progress of the three bills.

Related: U.S. Senate Passes GENIUS Act, Advancing Stablecoin Regulation

Earlier House Vote to Block GENIUS Act Came as Surprise

The failure of the initial House vote came as a surprise, as twelve Republicans unexpectedly opted to join Democrats in voting no, leading to a 196 – 223 result.

According to The Hill, the Republicans who initially voted against progressing the bills were largely “hard-line conservatives” who have ongoing concerns about CBDCs and government intrusion and want to see all three bills merged into one single piece of legislation.

“Some members who really, really want to emphasize the House’s product, as you know, Clarity Act, and the Anti-CBDC Act,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after the failed vote. 

We have our bills as well, they want to push that and merge that together. We’re trying to work with the White House and with our Senate partners on this. I think everybody is insistent that we’re gonna do all three, but some of these guys insist that it needs to be all in one package.

Mike Johnson, Speaker of the US House of Representatives

High profile Trump supporter, Marjorie Taylor Greene — one of the Republicans who voted to oppose progressing the bills — had posted on X before the Wednesday vote that she would again oppose their passage, largely due to CBDC concerns.

The only way to guarantee a ban on a central bank digital currency is through law. The GENIUS Act does not ban CBDC or maintain people’s chain of custody.

Majorie Taylor Greene, Republican representative

Related: US Treasury Expresses Concerns Over Stablecoins, Advocates Transitioning to CBDCs

Greene also included a screenshot of a biblical passage as part of her post and in a separate post said she would not be voting for the “mark of the beast system”.

Following the vote, Greene reportedly told reporters that she “just voted NO on the Rule for the GENIUS Act because it does not include a ban on Central Bank Digital Currency and because Speaker Johnson did not allow us to submit amendments to the GENIUS Act.”