U.S. House Republicans Reject Senate's Bid to Tie Housing Bill to Crypto Market-Structure Package

Odaily Planet Daily reports: House Republicans are rejecting a Senate proposal to strike a legislative bargain that would link housing and cryptocurrency bills. Under the plan, the Senate would fold the House's bipartisan Community Bank Deregulation Bill into pending crypto market-structure legislation, in exchange for the House taking up the Senate-passed housing affordability bill. Rep. Bill Huizenga, vice chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said he is skeptical of the approach. Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee discussed the idea in an off-the-record meeting last week, with Sen. Katie Britt working to sell it to other GOP senators. The House-passed housing measure approved in February included community bank deregulation provisions, but the Senate's latest housing bill stripped them out. House Republicans said the Senate housing package still leaves multiple issues unresolved and that attaching the bank deregulation bill to crypto legislation would not be enough to secure House acceptance. Rep. Andy Barr, a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, supports adding banking regulatory provisions to the crypto bill, but said the Senate must also adopt key housing proposals included in the House version.