Senator Marshall to shelve card fees provision in crypto bill markup: Report

Republican Senator Roger Marshall has reportedly agreed to hold back on pushing an amendment aimed at credit card swipe fees when the Senate Agriculture Committee marks up a major crypto bill next week. 

Marshall filed an amendment to the committee’s version of a crypto market structure bill last week that would force companies to compete on swipe fees, but later privately agreed not to add the provision, Politico reported on Monday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The Senate Agriculture Committee was expected to mark up the bill on Thursday, but pushed the meeting to Tuesday, Feb. 3, as most of the US faces a massive winter storm that has brought many areas of the country to a standstill.

The crypto market structure bill is set to lay out how financial regulators will police the crypto sector. However, discussions about the bill have been delayed as the Senate Agriculture and Banking Committees have rescheduled markups in an effort to drum up bipartisan support.

Politico reported that White House officials became involved in deliberations over the scheduled markup, and Marshall’s amendment would have “jeopardized” the crypto bill moving forward, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions.

The amendment was backed by Democratic Senators Dick Durbin and Peter Welch but some Republicans were opposed to it as it could pit the finance sector against big retailers.

The White House was reportedly pushing to pass the bill out of committee. It comes amid rising risk of a partial government shutdown by Saturday after Democrats signalled they wouldn’t support a funding package.

Republicans also want to score policy wins ahead of the midterm elections, as current polling shows Democrats with an advantage and Polymarket giving 80% odds that Democrats will win the House.

Related: Trump’s crypto advisor calls for compromises to pass crypto bill

The crypto bill has been subject to a series of provisions in both the Agriculture and Banking Committees, as lawmakers sought to add language around ethics and conflicts of interests along with restrictions on stablecoins.

Senate Ag Republicans released their version of the crypto bill on Wednesday, which did not have the support of the committee’s Democrats and included provisions aimed at protecting crypto software developers.

Senate Banking has yet to set a date for its rescheduled markup, but its meeting could reportedly be delayed until late February or March as it switches focus to implement the Trump administration’s affordability agenda.

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