North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican member of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, reportedly warned that Congress has only a few months left to push through crypto legislation before electoral politics stall progress.
According to a Bloomberg report on Monday, Tillis said the 2026 midterm elections will likely hinder progress on crypto-related bills currently moving through Congress, such as the Market Structural Framework, which passed the House of Representatives in July and is currently being debated in the Senate.
Tillis said lawmakers should act “by January, early February” to pass the bill this session, which ends in January 2027.
“I’m not optimistic about making further progress on digital assets, stablecoins, cryptocurrencies, etc. this Congress,” Tillis said, according to Bloomberg.
Tillis’ comments came amid the U.S. government shutdown that began on October 1 after lawmakers were unable to reach an agreement on a funding bill, citing Democratic concerns about health care cuts and subsidies.
The Senate is in session, but House Speaker Mike Johnson has been delaying proceedings in the chamber since before the shutdown began.
Cryptocurrency bills stalled by the shutdown include the CLARITY Act, which passed the House in July, and Senate leaders said they would “build on” to pass a market structure bill.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, the Republican leader on the Senate Banking Committee, said before the shutdown began that her chamber’s version of the bill, titled the Responsible Finance Innovation Act, would be enacted by 2026.
CFTC chair candidate seeks Senate confirmation
On Saturday, Securities and Exchange Commission official Michael Selig said US President Donald Trump has nominated him to chair the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), one of the main financial regulators that influences the operations of the country’s crypto companies.
His confirmation hearing was not listed on the Senate calendar as of Monday.
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