Rep. Bryan Steil joins ‘Varney & Co.’ to discuss a House vote on possible changes to the cryptocurrency market structure.
A rebellion by conservative lawmakers forced the House of Representatives’ legislative business to grind to a halt Tuesday.
A dozen House Republicans joined Democrats to sink a procedural vote that would have allowed lawmakers to debate several measures before voting for them individually on the House floor.
Now, House leaders’ plans to vote this week on three cryptocurrency bills and pass one of their 12 yearly appropriations bills, specifically dealing with the Department of Defense, are up in the air as they work to resolve GOP rebels’ issues.
Fox News Digital was told some of the dozen Republicans had concerns about how the Senate rewrote one of the cryptocurrency bills, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins of 2025 or the GENIUS Act of 2025.
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President Donald Trump backed the House’s cryptocurrency bills (Reuters/Nathan Howard / Reuters Photos)
Others had concerns the Senate would not take up the two other cryptocurrency bills if they passed the House, effectively jamming the lower chamber with the upper chamber’s will again.
Frustrations among House Republicans are still fresh after many of those same fiscal hawks were forced to compromise with Senate GOP changes to President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” that they opposed.
“This week, the House is voting on the GENIUS Act which lays the groundwork for a layered Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) where Americans interact with stablecoins but behind the scenes there are the functional surveillance capabilities of a CBDC,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., wrote on X less than an hour before the vote.
“The bill as written does not expressly ban a CBDC and does not protect self-custody. Self-custody means that you control your own money, not a third party.”
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told reporters after voting no, “We had some questions about it and wanted to fix it.
“There was an amendment. Folks had concern about an amendment they wanted to have on there,” Burchett added. “It dealt with the banking part.”
Rep. Chip Roy is one of 12 House Republicans who brought down a House rule vote. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Trump, meanwhile, encouraged House Republicans to advance the cryptocurrency bills on Truth Social earlier Tuesday.
“The House will soon VOTE on a tremendous Bill to Make America the UNDISPUTED, NUMBER ONE LEADER in Digital Assets – Nobody does it better! The GENIUS Act is going to put our Great Nation lightyears ahead of China, Europe, and all others, who are trying endlessly to catch up, but they just can’t do it,” he wrote.
“Digital Assets are the FUTURE, and we are leading by a lot! Get the first Vote done this afternoon (ALL REPUBLICANS SHOULD VOTE YES!). This is our moment – Digital Assets, GENIUS, Clarity! It is all part of Making America Great Again, BIGGER AND BETTER THAN EVER BEFORE. We are leading the World, and will work hard with the Senate and the House to get even more Legislation on this passed!”
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A House “rule” vote is a normally sleepy procedural hurdle that traditionally falls along party lines.
In recent years, however, it’s been used at times by factions of House GOP lawmakers to protest their leaders’ decisions.
“They have this stuff in the rule that we had some concerns with, like putting the bill on the floor the Senate version of the GENIUS Act that we think leaves some room for some concern with respect to the central bank digital currency and that there not be a hard ban on that,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told reporters.
Speaker Mike Johnson said the House would try again after his conversations with people about their concerns. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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“And we had some other things that our version of the bill with respect to [the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 (CLARITY Act)], which, you know, deals with market structure things that we think are critically important. So, we feel like we need to be dealing with all of this at once and make sure that we’re pretty clear about the central bank digital currency. So, we’ve got some more work to do.”
House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., said the outcome “won’t change unless they’re willing to kill central bank digital currency.”
When asked about the discord, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters the House would try the vote again Wednesday.
“We’re still having conversations, answering questions from people,” he said.
Fox News’ Kelly Phares contributed to this report.
