Amid a US government shutdown with no end in sight, a Republican lawmaker said Congress had only until January or February to pass crypto legislation.
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican member of the US Senate Banking Committee, reportedly warned that Congress has only a few months left to advance crypto legislation before election politics stall progress.
According to a Monday Bloomberg report, Tillis said the 2026 midterm elections would likely hamper progress on any crypto bills currently moving through Congress, such as the market structure framework passed by the House of Representatives in July, which is currently under consideration in the Senate.
Tillis said lawmakers should act “by the first part of January, February” to get any legislation passed in the current session, which ends in January 2027.
“I’m not optimistic about us moving much further on anything around digital assets, stablecoins, or crypto in this Congress,” said Tillis, according to Bloomberg.
Tillis’s remarks came amid a US government shutdown, which started on Oct. 1 after lawmakers were unable to reach an agreement on a funding bill over Democratic concerns with healthcare cuts and subsidies.
Though the Senate remains in session, House Speaker Mike Johnson has continued to delay business in the chamber since before the shutdown began.
Related: Congressman Steil: US market structure bill on track, despite shutdown
Among the crypto-related bills stalled by the shutdown was the CLARITY Act, passed by the House in July, which Senate leaders said they would “build on” to pass market structure legislation.
Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Republican leader on the Senate Banking Committee, said before the shutdown began that the chamber’s version of the bill, titled the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, would become law by 2026.
Prospective CFTC chair looking for Senate confirmation
On Saturday, Securities and Exchange Commission official Michael Selig said US President Donald Trump had nominated him to chair the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), one of the key financial regulators affecting how crypto companies operate in the country.
His confirmation hearing did not appear on the Senate calendar as of Monday.
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