The Senate’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill did not bring any optimism for the crypto community. The amendment was designed to address issues from the crypto-asset industry that the original bill would require entities, such as miners and software devs, to report tax data to the Internal Revenue Service [IRS] that they did not have access to. Three Republicans – Pat Toomey, Cynthia Lummis, and Rob Portman, and two Democrats, Mark Warner and Kyrsten Sinema presented a few changes to this.
However, it took a single “nay” from a lone Senator who turned down the compromise in the infrastructure bill after days of negotiations. The US Sen. Richard Shelby [R-Ala.] filed an objection after trying to add his own amendment to amplify military spending. When Sen. Bernie Sanders objected to the Shelby motion, the latter went on to then reject the overall compromise.
Sen. Lummis on Infrastructure Bill: Fights isn’t over
Despite this major setback, the cryptocurrency market has been rallying hard and has remained mostly unfazed. According to Sen. Cynthia Lummis, there are some important lessons to learn from this about the “antics in Washington” over the newly proposed crypto tax included in the infrastructure bill. Lummis’s tweet read,
“First: This is what happens when bills are drafted behind closed doors without input from experts and stakeholders.”
Talking about the Financial Innovation Caucus, Lummis stated that the organization was created to educate those who make decisions that impact this industry. The Senator also asserted that if decisions are made without fully comprehending the implications of their actions, the US risks falling further behind China with respect to financial innovation.
Sen Lummis went on to highlight the importance of prepare soon for the next time the community goes up against the “anti-innovation crowd,” and asserted the urgency for “engaging early, building coalitions, and shed light on the actors who are working to stifle innovation and maintain the status quo.”
“The fight isn’t over. It always takes work to convince skeptics of the merits of new technology.”