The News
Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., on Wednesday vowed to oppose the Senate’s cryptocurrency regulation bill unless Republicans strengthen its ethics provisions, arguing the latest GOP proposal relies too heavily on the Justice Department.
Speaking at Semafor’s World of Work event, Alsobrooks said a draft provision making the DOJ the sole enforcer of ethics restrictions is “wild and unserious and stone crazy.” She argued, instead, that state attorneys general should be empowered to bring cases if the department fails to act.
“It’s an absolute that we cannot completely rely on the DOJ, given what we’ve seen of their inability and their unwillingness to enforce the law,” Alsobrooks, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, told Semafor’s Burgess Everett. “The backstop is going to be that we must empower state-level attorneys generals if the DOJ does not do its job.”
Her comments come as Senate negotiators enter make-or-break talks to salvage bipartisan support for the legislation. Democrats have insisted on stronger ethics guardrails, including to address concerns over President Donald Trump’s ties to the cryptocurrency industry, a push that has met resistance from Republicans.
Alsobrooks, who was one of just two Democrats who voted to advance the crypto regulatory bill out of the Banking Committee, said negotiators are “fairly close.” But she warned the ethics provisions remain a dealbreaker.
“Although I have been supportive to this point, I absolutely will not support on the floor any legislation that does not include provisions around ethics,” she said.
Notable
- The White House signed off on the draft ethics language earlier this week, Punchbowl News reported.
- Trump’s recent disclosure that he made more than $1 billion from cryptocurrency while in office complicated the bipartisan talks, Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller reported.