House GOP hard-liners defy Trump, Speaker Johnson by crippling crypto measures

In a crippling setback for the Trump administration, House Republicans failed to advance a key procedural vote on a package of legislation including three crypto measures -- a top priority for President Donald Trump.

A dozen House Republicans bucked Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson to prevent the legislation from advancing on the floor -- joining the entire Democratic caucus -- and, at least temporarily, freezing activity in the House. The final tally was 196-223.

Johnson said that while he anticipated that there may be enough opposition to defeat the effort, he felt that it was "important" to try to advance the bills. Republicans have a narrow majority in the House -- with 220 Republicans compared to 212 Democrats.

Johnson said that he will attempt to work with Republican holdouts to answer questions -- though no more votes are planned in the House on Tuesday.

The speaker explained that conservatives who voted against the rule want the crypto bills -- CLARITY, GENIUS and Anti CBDC Surveillance Act -- combined into one big package, rather than take separate standalone votes on each measure.

"This is the legislative process. We have some members who really, really want to emphasize the House's product," Johnson said. "They want to, want to push that and merge them together. We're trying to work with the White House and with our Senate partners on this. I think everybody is insistent that we're going to do all three, but some of these guys insist that it needs to be all in one package."

The intraparty rebellion comes after Trump strongly urged Republicans to vote in favor of advancing the crypto bills.

"The GENIUS Act is going to put our Great Nation lightyears ahead of China, Europe, and all others, who are trying endlessly to catch up, but they just can't do it," Trump posted on Truth Social Tuesday. "Digital Assets are the FUTURE, and we are leading by a lot! Get the first Vote done this afternoon (ALL REPUBLICANS SHOULD VOTE YES!)."

The no votes came from Reps. Andy Biggs, Tim Burchett, Michael Cloud, Andrew Clyde, Eli Crane, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Andy Harris, Anna Paulina Luna, Scott Perry, Chip Roy, Keith Self and Victoria Spartz. Majority Leader Steve Scalise also changed his vote to "no" to preserve the capability to call the measure back up for another attempted vote.

Luna, a Florida Republican, told ABC News that she is "pro-crypto," but voted against the procedural vote because she continues to have concerns about creating a "backdoor" to a Central Bank Digital Currency -- a worry echoed by Greene.

"I just voted NO on the Rule for the GENIUS Act because it does not include a ban on Central Bank Digital Currency and because Speaker Johnson did not allow us to submit amendments to the GENIUS Act," Greene, R-Ga., posted on X. "Americans do not want a government-controlled Central Bank Digital Currency. Republicans have a duty to ban CBDC. President Trump included a ban on CBDC in his January 23rd executive order and Congress must also include the ban on CBDC in the GENIUS Act."

The vote came during what the White House is calling “Crypto Week” and marks a rare instance when House Republicans have defied Trump's direction.

Trump, who launched his own crypto meme coin earlier this year, recently said he is a "fan of crypto" and called it a "very powerful industry" that the U.S. has "dominated."

"I'm president. And what I did do there is build an industry that's very important," Trump said last month. "If we didn't have it, China would."

Once a crypto skeptic, Trump and his family have fully immersed themselves in the cryptocurrency marketplace, developing not only the $TRUMP meme coin, but also a bitcoin mining firm, a stablecoin firm and a crypto reserve.