This week: Senate aims to finish stablecoin bill, with House away

Niels Lesniewski, CQ-Roll Call on Jun 16, 2025

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WASHINGTON — The House is out for a Juneteenth recess this week, and the Senate will be working an abbreviated week with the goal of passing a bipartisan stablecoin regulation bill on Tuesday.

The Senate voted 67-27 to invoke cloture and end debate on the bill June 12, after negotiations led to some changes to secure more Democratic support. Democrats initially rallied in opposition to calling the bill up on the floor in May.

“We have an opportunity to cement America’s financial dominance for decades to come and demonstrate that this body can come together and pass legislation that benefits our country and its citizens,” Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., the lead sponsor of the measure, said in a floor speech last week.

There had been concern among supporters that the measure, despite having bipartisan support, could have simply run out of time for floor debate with the Republican majority eager to turn to the budget reconciliation measure that Republicans are calling the “one big, beautiful bill.”

Committees were working to finalize their drafts even as negotiations over details continued. A key draft from the Senate Finance Committee is expected to be released on Monday — the panel has sweeping jurisdiction over tax and health policy. But even that draft might not include all the details. Republicans as of last week were still trying to negotiate details among themselves, like how to address state and local tax deductibility.

House and Senate Republicans have disagreed on how much to expand the SALT deduction, with a number of House Republicans hailing from high-tax jurisdictions such as New York, New Jersey and California. There are no Republican senators from those states.

With only a three-day workweek because of the Juneteenth holiday, the other primary business on the Senate floor this week will be a limited number of nominations. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has moved to limit debate on the nomination of Gary Andres to be an assistant secretary of Health and Human Services, as well as two separate nominations of Olivia Trusty — the first to fill an unexpired term on the Federal Communications Commission and another for a five-year term.

Andres, who is President Donald Trump’s pick to be assistant secretary for legislation, is the very definition of a super-staffer. His most recent role has been as staff director of the House Budget Committee, but he’s been all over the House side, including as the GOP staff director at both the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Ways and Means Committee. He also worked in White House legislative affairs and in prominent private sector roles in Washington.

Trusty also has substantial experience as a congressional aide, including for both the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Her confirmation would restore a quorum to the FCC.

Aside from the legislative business, there’s also an all-senators briefing on security slated for Tuesday morning. The meeting, requested by both Thune and Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., follows the targeted shootings of two Democratic Minnesota state lawmakers and their spouses on Saturday.

Former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, were both killed in what Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz termed “an act of targeted political violence.” State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were also both shot and wounded.

Law enforcement officials apprehended a suspect on Sunday following a manhunt.

“Thank you to all in law enforcement who worked relentlessly to locate and arrest this suspect. It was a mammoth and heroic effort,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said in a statement.