{"id":22567,"date":"2026-05-12T17:32:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/crypto-bill-ethics-talks-wobble-as-senators-eye-trump-engagement\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T17:32:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:32:05","slug":"crypto-bill-ethics-talks-wobble-as-senators-eye-trump-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/crypto-bill-ethics-talks-wobble-as-senators-eye-trump-engagement\/","title":{"rendered":"Crypto bill ethics talks wobble as senators eye Trump engagement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Senators emerged from a closed-door meeting focused on ethics language that Democrats want to insert into landmark cryptocurrency legislation split over the status of the talks, with one Republican calling the negotiations a \u201ccircus.\u201d<\/p>\n

A bipartisan group of senators met in the Capitol Tuesday with a top White House crypto policy adviser to negotiate language that would restrict government officials\u2019 engagements with digital assets \u2014 a key demand for Senate Democrats who have raised concerns about the Trump family\u2019s crypto businesses. Lawmakers are trying to come to a deal ahead of a Thursday markup in the Senate Banking Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Democrats are trying to find reasons to vote against the bill and making up a bunch of bullshit excuses,\u201d said Sen. Bernie Moreno<\/a> (R-Ohio), who called the meeting a “circus.”<\/p>\n

\u201cSuper annoying,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Other members struck a more positive note.<\/p>\n

\u201cSen. Moreno is prone to exaggeration,\u201d said Sen. Ruben Gallego<\/a> of Arizona, a key Democratic negotiator. \u201cWe are working constructively. I think that could be his interpretation and then, it that\u2019s the interpretation, maybe he should stop going to the meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Cynthia Lummis<\/a> (R-Wyo.), a key GOP negotiator, said lawmakers are \u201cmaking progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to go into those discussions assuming that the other side is negotiating in good faith,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd if that turns out not to be the case, then shame on them, not shame on me. I\u2019m trying to get a deal here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patrick Witt, a top Trump administration crypto policy adviser, is representing the White House in the talks. But lawmakers on both sides say they want sign-off from Trump on any final ethics deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever we agree to, it has to be signed off by Trump,\u201d Gallego said earlier Tuesday. \u201cAnd if he doesn\u2019t sign off on it, then it doesn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lummis said in an interview that she and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand<\/a> (D-N.Y.) have agreed to seek a meeting with Trump about the ethics issue if White House staff are unable get him on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we end up with a ethics proposal that the White House staffers think is on the bubble in terms of the president\u2019s ability to swallow it, it would be important for us to go,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Republicans have said that ethics language can\u2019t go into the bill that the Banking panel votes on this Thursday due to jurisdictional issues, but Democrats are insisting on a deal ahead of the markup. Gallego told reporters the ethics issue \u201cwill have to be addressed before the Banking Committee,\u201d but added: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t necessarily have to be addressed through the Banking Committee.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senators emerged from a closed-door meeting focused on ethics language that Democrats want to insert into landmark cryptocurrency legislation split over the status of the talks, with one Republican calling the negotiations a \u201ccircus.\u201d A bipartisan group of senators met in the Capitol Tuesday with a top White House crypto policy adviser to negotiate language […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}