Senate Banking Committee advances Genius Act after heated markup over consumer and national security safeguards

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Scott said the committee would "return to regular order" as members met in executive session and moved to mark up the Genius Act, a bipartisan framework to regulate payment stablecoins.

The committee reported the bill as amended to the full Senate, with the committee approving the managerspackage and voting 18-6 to send S.919 to the floor. Committee debate centered on whether the bill provides enough consumer protections and anti-money-laundering safeguards while also preserving innovation and U.S. leadership in payment systems.

The managers' package adopted at the start of the markup bundled a series of bipartisan provisions meant to clarify supervision and consumer protections. The package text cited in the hearing included amendments that (1) clarified treatment of non-permitted payment stablecoins, (2) required regulators to consider the…