But the 2026 midterm elections are coming very soon – November 3, so less than four months away – and lawmakers will have to deal with their own base and their flanks after they break for summer vacation and begin the final election campaign.
This means that US President Donald Trump and the $1.4 billion he made from crypto will be a key factor in the floor vote. Specifically, if there is no ethics provision, it is unlikely that enough Democrats will vote for the bill in the Senate. If the text coming out next week doesn’t even include a placeholder to address the ethics part, it could even be counterproductive to gaining full bipartisan support for the bill, one individual said.
This means that Trump will still have to sign an ethics agreement. Several of the sources CoinDesk spoke with last week said the White House hasn’t been as engaged recently as earlier this summer, but another person told CoinDesk in early July that it may just be a matter of waiting to see if all the other outstanding issues are resolved first.
One silver lining for the bill’s supporters: Assuming the president didn’t veto the housing bill sitting on his desk between the filing of this newsletter and midnight Saturday, a provision barring the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency for at least four years. will have taken effect. Industry players feared that House lawmakers would push to include a ban on CBDCs in Clarity if the Senate advances the bill, putting even more pressure on the negotiation process and timeline. But this issue should be resolved for now, at least until 2030, thanks to its inclusion in the housing bill.
