“If Senate Democrats block this historic legislation after the administration went out of its way to address their concerns, stakeholders should make no mistake: It’s Democrats who are blocking this legislation because they were never serious about the legislative outcome,” the White House official said.
Democratic negotiators such as Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks were reportedly not given details of the deal with Trump, who met personally with Republican senators last week. But many Democrats have drawn a line in the sand that ethics provisions — driven primarily by Trump’s deep crypto ties — must be strong.
The dispute was recently intensified by the president’s revelations that he pocketed more than $1 billion last year from his crypto interests.
The White House, Republicans and their crypto industry allies are already building their arguments against any Democrats who do not accept the new response to their ethical demands. We don’t know when they will be able to see it.
The industry expects the Clarity Act’s legislative text to be fully released as early as Tuesday evening or Wednesday, although that expectation has been delayed several times since last week.
The Senate has less than three weeks to finalize the bill, including the ethics component, and pass it through the political challenge of a floor vote before lawmakers leave town for their re-election campaigns. Technically we have enough time, but even without a full debate it would be tight.
