The House late Wednesday advanced a trio of cryptocurrency bills and a 2026 Defense spending measure after a group of GOP hard-liners dropped their opposition to the effort following a chaotic day of turnabouts and negotiations with Republican leaders.
The House voted 217-212 to advance the bills following a closed-door standoff between House conservatives and the leaders of the Financial Services and Agriculture committees, which crafted the legislation. The vote was held open more than nine hours for the negotiations.
GOP hard-liners, who tanked a procedural vote on the bills Tuesday afternoon, were pushing to merge a sweeping crypto market structure bill known as the CLARITY Act with separate, partisan legislation to ban a central bank digital currency. The GOP chairs of the Financial Services and Agriculture panels, Reps. French Hill (R-Ark.) and G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.), opposed that plan, fearing it would kill off Democratic support for the market structure bill.
The Republican rebels dropped their opposition after GOP leaders said they would attach a measure banning a CBDC — a government-issued digital dollar that conservatives say would open the door to privacy invasions — to a must-pass defense authorization bill. The deal came following a late-night meeting in House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office.
Trump called in at the very end and was briefed on the agreement, according to two people in the room granted anonymity to describe a private discussion. “He’s happy with it,” one of the people said.
“This breaks the logjam, allows us to get our work done,” Johnson afterward. The Louisiana Republican spoke to Senate Majority Leader John Thune Wednesday about adding the CBDC ban to the NDAA, according to two other people granted anonymity to discuss the private conversation.
The procedural vote tees the House up to adopt the crypto bills in the coming days. Johnson said he expects to vote on a Senate-approved measure that would create new rules for so-called stablecoins on Thursday. A vote on the CLARITY bill could be pushed to next week.
The stablecoin legislation, known as the GENIUS Act, would go to President Donald Trump’s desk and become the first major crypto bill ever passed by Congress, delivering a major lobbying victory to crypto firms.
The procedural vote also will allow the House to move swiftly on an amended package of spending clawbacks requested by Trump. As House Republicans struggled over crypto issues Wednesday, senators were grinding through votes in hopes of approving the rescissions package ahead of a Friday deadline.
