US House votes to move forward with stablecoin GENIUS, crypto market structure bills following tumultuous procedural vote

U.S. House lawmakers are back on track to push forward with landmark cryptocurrency legislation after a previous routine vote turned tumultuous earlier in the week.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 215 to 211 on Wednesday to move forward and later take a vote on the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (also known as the GENIUS bill), which would create a regulatory framework for stablecoins and could be slated to head to President Donald Trump's desk before the end of the week. 

Lawmakers also voted to proceed with the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, or Clarity for short, that takes a whole-of-crypto approach and would create a clear regulatory framework for crypto in part through designating how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission will regulate. They also agreed to later vote on a bill to block the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency directly to individuals. A CBDC is a digital form of fiat money, directly issued and regulated by the central bank of a country.

No Democrats voted yes to move forward with the bills. 

On Tuesday, House lawmakers voted 196 to 223 against moving forward with voting on three bills scheduled for this week. Republicans had called this week "Crypto Week" with a mission to pass all three bills out of the House.

Votes crumbled after several Republicans, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Chip Roy, Michael Cloud, and Anna Paulina Luna, voted no, according to reporting from The Hill. Greene said she was concerned about the GENIUS Act's treatment of CBDCs. Since lawmakers leading the effort have made clear that the GENIUS Act does not allow the Federal Reserve to issue a CBDC.

The Federal Reserve has been exploring the possibility of issuing a CBDC and released a report in 2022 examining the pros and cons of a CBDC, but central bank officials have thrown cold water on the idea in the past.

On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump said key lawmakers had agreed to vote yes on the bill.

Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., who chairs the House Freedom Caucus, posted on X during the vote that the caucus would be voting in favor and that they had agreed to meet later to add CBDC provisions into Clarity. 

"This is an important step to ensure Americans are protected from government overreach into their financial privacy," Harris said. 

Punchbowl News reported that Rep. Greene originally voted no for moving forward with the bills, but later changed her vote to yes. 

Earlier in the day, Greene said she would not vote for it, again signalling concerns over CBDC bans. 

"The only way to guarantee a ban on a central bank digital currency is through law," Greene posted on X ahead of Wednesday's vote. "The GENIUS Act does not ban CBDC or maintain people’s chain of custody."

During a press conference earlier on Wednesday, House Democrats urged lawmakers to vote no on Clarity. Top Democrat of the House Financial Services Committee Maxine Waters called the Clarity and GENIUS "two of the most dangerous pieces of legislation."

"Let's be clear, these bills are a gift-wrapped invitation for Trump to continue his full-scale crypto con," she said.

Next, lawmakers will take votes on the bills. Both Clarity and the anti-CBDC bill would have to be passed by the Senate before becoming law. GENIUS has already been passed by the Senate, so it would go to Trump's desk.

Updated at 5:45 p.m. UTC on July 16 to add more details