Discussions over the digital asset market structure bill currently being considered in the US Senate are reportedly still happening amid the longest government shutdown in the country's history.
According to a Tuesday Politico report, Republican Senator John Boozman with the Senate Agriculture Committee — one of the committees that will need to approve the bill before consideration in the full chamber — will discuss the market structure legislation with White House crypto and AI czar David Sacks and Democratic Senator Cory Booker. The reported call will come as lawmakers prepare to finalize a discussion draft of the bill.
The market structure bill is expected to be one of the most significant pieces of legislation affecting the crypto industry to come out of the current session of Congress.
Initially passed by the House of Representatives in July, many had expected the bill to pass in the Senate with bipartisan support. However, discussions were complicated by Democrats’ insistence on provisions for decentralized finance protocols and the US government shutdown, which entered its 36th day on Wednesday.
It's unclear whether Senate lawmakers intend to prioritize any crypto legislation ahead of a funding bill to reopen the government and return financial agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, to full staff and operations.
However, after a few high-profile Democratic victories in Tuesday's elections, some senators, including Chris Murphy, have suggested holding the line to push Republican lawmakers to support extending healthcare subsidies and reverse cuts from a July funding bill.
Market Structure Bill Timeline Amidst Shutdown
Last week, North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican, said lawmakers had until “the first part of January, February” to pass crypto legislation before the 2026 midterm elections complicated the process.
Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of the market structure bill’s sponsors in the banking committee, initially said she planned to have the legislation signed into law by the end of the year, a timeline looking less likely amid the shutdown.
“Right now, we’re working at the staff level every single day to get the votes necessary in committee to get it out of committee,” Lummis said in a Tuesday interview with Bloomberg on the market structure bill. “These are bipartisan discussions. They are down at the granular level. We’re making tremendous progress [...]”
Speaking at Ripple’s Swell conference in New York City on Wednesday, the executive director of US President Donald Trump’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, Patrick Witt, said the government shutdown has “presented some complications” with discussions over market structure.
He added that having lawmakers more available due to the lack of meetings during the shutdown allowed for additional engagement, but furloughed staff from agencies presented a lack of “technical expertise” to weigh in on the bill.