A trio of cryptocurrency bills that had been expected to pass the House this week stalled Tuesday after a bloc of Republicans unexpectedly joined with Democrats to prevent the legislation from coming up for debate and votes.
The procedural snafu brought the House's so-called "crypto week" to a standstill - and dealt a blow to President Donald Trump , who had strongly urged Republicans to pass the bills as part of his push to make the U.S. the " crypto capital of the world."
Trump intervened during a late evening meeting with Republicans at the White House, and appeared to put the bills back on track. He posted on social media that he expected votes as soon as Wednesday.
A group of 13 Republicans had joined all Democrats in opposition to a procedural vote needed to bring the crypto bills to the floor. Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters it was just part of the "legislative process" and that negotiations were underway between the House, Senate and White House. He suggested they could try again Tuesday evening.
"We expected there might be some 'no' votes, but we thought it was important to put it on the floor to advance it because time's of the essence on this," Johnson said. "So stay tuned. We'll have lots of discussions over the next few hours."