Who?
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) — Chair, Senate Banking Committee Digital Assets Subcommittee
LISTEN: Laslo & Lummis
Ask a Pol asks:
How are you feeling on crypto after Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott cancelled the scheduled markup over last minute Coinbase complaints?
Key Lummis:
“I’m going to be okay,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis exclusively tells Ask a Pol. “We’ll get back to it, but it’s going to take a while to develop a plan on how to take another run at it.”
ICYMI — Coinbase tweet on X heard round the Senate
Any guess on next markup date…?
“It’ll happen this year calendar year,” Lummis says. “That’s all I can say.”
Do you know that?
“I’m not going to reach out to do it immediately,” Lummis tells Ask a Pol. “People need a chance to soak in what happened.”
Caught our ear:
Can you all get to a point where the banks and crypto folks will all be happy with a compromise measure?
“Not happy. I think we can get to a point where neither will be — where they’ll all be less unhappy, but I don’t think anybody will get happy,” Lummis says.
“…then they got a little greedy and pushed too far,
and so they lost everything.”
“We had what we thought was an agreement that the banks were satisfied with, but I think as time went on and the banks were lobbying different members of the Banking Committee, I think that they were emboldened by what they were hearing,” Lummis conitnues, “and then they, maybe, got a little greedy and pushed too far, and so they lost everything. You know, they lost everything. They wanted changes to GENIUS [Act] in CLARITY [Act], and they lost them all.”
TRANSCRIPT: Sen. Cynthia Lummis (1-15-2026)
SCENE: At the very end of the Senate’s last vote ahead of their weeklong MLK Jr. recess, Ask a Pol’s Matt Laslo walked with Sen. Cynthia Lummis as she looked for her staffer just off the Senate floor.
They never found the Senator’s staffer, though, after a few minutes, they did attract a few other congressional reporters (ie, Bloomberg, Politico, PunchBowl and others who eat Ask a Pols’ crums regularly…).
Matt Laslo: “How are you feeling on crypto?”
Sen. Cynthia Lummis: “Ugh.”
Laslo: “Right?”
Lummis: “I’m going to be okay.”
Laslo: “Yeah?”
Lummis: “We’ll get back to it, but it’s going to take a while to develop a plan on how to take another run at it.”
Laslo: “How much are you guys hearing from the regulators at CFTC and SEC as opposed to the companies?”
Lummis: “Well, of course, nothing in the last few hours [late Thursday afternoon]. We did seek a lot of technical assistance leading up to the bill, the vote on — the amendments on the bill — so we’ve pursued technical assistance from federal agencies all along.”
Laslo: “Yeah?”
Politico: “So what is your outlook for rescheduling the markup?”
Lummis: “Yeah, it’ll happen this year calendar year. That’s all I can say.”
They laugh.
Laslo: “Is that hopeful or do you know that?”
Lummis: “I’m not going to reach out to do it immediately. People need a chance to soak in what happened.”
Laslo: “Yeah? What did happen?”
Politico: “Yeah — what do you think was the primary cause?”
Lummis: “The interest issue. So it is the issue that remains from the Genius Act and it just was really significant in doing away with the Clarity Act.”
Politico: “And you think it’s possible to get to a point where the banking folks and crypto folks will all be happy with whatever…?”
Lummis: “Not happy. I think we can get to a point where neither will be — where they’ll all be less unhappy, but I don’t think anybody will get happy. We had what we thought was an agreement that the banks were satisfied with, but I think as time went on and the banks were lobbying different members of the Banking Committee — and I think that they were emboldened by what they were hearing and then they, maybe, got a little greedy and pushed too far. And so they lost everything. You know, they lost everything. They wanted changes to GENIUS [Act] in CLARITY [Act], and they lost them all.
Support our work! Find Ask a Pol on Venmo, PayPal, Cash App.
Or just buy the team a beer!
“And I think — we had an agreement at one point, in principle. But, and the other thing is, there’s other good stuff for banking in CLARITY, but I don’t think they know that. So now they have to look back and say, ‘okay, where did we push too hard? Where — what else was in there that we didn’t know was advantageous to banking and should we revisit our position?’ So…”
Laslo: “When you say banks, does that include Coinbase and the digital companies?”
Lummis: “No.”
Laslo: “Or is this just the banks?”
Lummis: “This is just banks.”
Laslo: “Yeah.”
Lummis: “Traditional banks and credit unions.”
Bloomberg: “Do you think that — you know, Senator Kennedy’s been recommending a public hearing where both sides get to come in and sort of make their case?”
Lummis: “Yeah, and actually…”
Bloomberg: “Do you think that might be the next step?”
Lummis: “I do, but I I would recommend against public. And the reason being, then we’re going to hear from people who oppose any changes, and that’s not productive. So I would prefer to seek sort of a curated hearing — where we’re hearing from people who are stakeholders in the bill.”
Bloomberg: “Yeah? As opposed to sort of like an academic who hates crypto.”
Lummis: “Right. Exactly.”
Laslo: “What about Jane and Joe public?”
Lummis: “You know, I can’t even get members of the Banking Committee deeply enough involved in this...”
Laslo: “Yeah?”
Lummis: “…and so to bring in the public, I just, I don’t — maybe that’s what they’ll want. Maybe that’s what Mr. [Sen. John] Kennedy and Mr. [Sen. Mike] Rounds will want, and maybe that’s what we’ll have to do. But I’m struggling with seeing how that moves us to a conclusion.”
Reporter III: “And, Coinbase, what they did yesterday was obviously made a big splash. Are you frustrated at Coinbase? Are you frustrated that they came out and sort of derailed this at the 11th hour and how do you feel about it?”
Lummis: “Yeah, I’m actually kind of glad they came out and said what they didn’t like and were more specific, because some of the things they didn’t like — I wish they would have chosen a different venue than social media than a tweet — but they indicated that I’d given away too much and Republicans had given away too much in the area of privacy and that we need to revisit that. And so in a way, you know, I’m glad they brought that out, because even though I’m not happy that it came out on Twitter — everybody did see that, Republicans and Democrats, so maybe the Democrats are just thinking, ‘Wow, if we really want to get a bill done, we’re going to have to give a little to this industry on privacy.’”
Reporter III: “So what do you make now of the balancing act that you and Chairman Scott have of Coinbase and parts of the industry coming out and publicly saying the areas of the bill that they have concerns with, and then you have Democrats on the other side whose votes you still need to ultimately pass something.”
Lummis: “Yeah.”
Reporter III: “How can you thread that needle?”
Lummis: “Stay tuned. We’ll figure it out.”
Laslo laughs.
Lummis: “Thanks.”
Laslo: “Thank you, ma’am.”
Hangers on: “Thank you.”
What should we ask Congress next?
AI Disclosure:
Ask a Pol’s playing around with as many new AI tools as we can, so this small, unfunded startup can compete in today’s new media landscape.
