Sen. Alsobrooks on Crypto and Clarity

Angela Alsobrooks (0:00)

The negotiation was still happening. The compromises were right there. And senior leadership came in the room and said, this is over. Please leave the room.

And that is the reason that we didn't strike what we know could have been, I think, a great compromise.

Peter Hamby (0:20)

Welcome to The Powers That Be Daily, Puck's podcast focused on the intersection of Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley and Hollywood, and the players who run it all. I'm Peter Hamby. It's Saturday, October 3rd. Today, something a little different in the feed. This week, my colleague Leigh Ann Caldwell sat down with Maryland Senator Angela Alsobrooks at a Puck Power Breakfast in Washington, presented by the Solana Policy Institute.

Alsobrooks gave Leigh Ann some scoopy details about why the Clarity Act, the ill-fated crypto market structure bill fell apart, and why the crypto industry could be making a major mistake by attacking Democrats in the midterms. Please enjoy this conversation.

Leigh Ann Caldwell (1:13)

Senator Alsobrooks, thank you so much for being here today.

Angela Alsobrooks (1:16)

Well, thank you so much for having me. Good morning, everyone. Good morning.

Leigh Ann Caldwell (1:20)

So, freshman, senator, are you liking your job so far?

Angela Alsobrooks (1:24)

Well, I have to tell you, and I've often said this, I'm so ashamed for the people who keep asking, well, what do you think? How is it in the Senate? And I have to tell you, I have loved every minute of it. I'm ashamed to say so.

Leigh Ann Caldwell (1:36)

I don't know if I believe you.

Angela Alsobrooks (1:37)

Yeah, oh my God. Well, you know what? I have the real sense that I'm in the right place at the right time, and there is really something amazing about being present at a time where our country is changing, I think, before our very eyes, to have the opportunity to be at the table, to be a part of these consequential conversations and policies. So it's a really, I've enjoyed it immensely over the last year and a half. It hasn't been easy there for any of us, but it is an important time, and I've just really been grateful to be able to be a part of it.

Leigh Ann Caldwell (2:08)

So, you know, in John's introduction and even in Rachel's introduction, she talked about how instrumental you've been, which is actually pretty rare for a freshman senator who hasn't even finished a full two-year cycle yet, to be so involved in such consequential policy making. Obviously, the Clarity Act did not pass. But, you know, just big picture.

What do you think—and I know this is a really, really kind of loaded question, and you don't need to go through every single element— but what was the one thing, one reason, why it didn't get over the finish line in the end?

Angela Alsobrooks (2:47)

Oh, my goodness, well, well, let me just say first about all of it. You mentioned a couple of things I just want to go back to.

You talked about the fact that I was a French freshman and I was there. I do want to mention that of my freshman class, I was the only person in that class who didn't come from the house. I was the only person in the group who was an executive. And so my perspective and mindset on all of this, I think, is very different than a lot of folks in my class, because I'm interested in just getting things done. Now, when you say what caused it not to go over the finish line, I think that the will was there. Believe it or not, we had tremendous bipartisan compromise throughout this entire process, starting even back with Genius. When I came to the Senate, I think people were really surprised about the fact that I got involved in the Genius Act, saying, well, why is this the place you will start? I said from the beginning that economic opportunity was going to be my North Star.

I believe that you get nothing if you don't come to the table. Cryptocurrency, whether we acknowledge it or not, want to put our hands in the sand or not, 70 million Americans already own cryptocurrency. So it was very important to regulate it, starting with Genius, going to Clarity. So many of us worked overtime. I want to thank Perrin Brown, who is here, my Senior Policy Advisor, who, you know, it would just not be right not to mention how hard he worked and the entire team worked on this.

But in the end, just to get to the final point, I think that we were inches away. I think everyone could see it. It was the reason that, you know, I continued, even when it looked in the markup, like it was very challenging. I made the decision to keep compromising. But we were inches away, and literally, and this is public knowledge, it was that the Republican leadership said they did not want us to continue the negotiations. And I think it's a shame because I think we were inches away on many of the issues that we said were going to be important to get this across the finish line on ethics, on illicit finance, on agriculture. We were right there.