‘Don’t Kill The Crypto’ Billboard Rises In Alabama Before Anti-Home Infrastructure

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Digital rights group Fight for the Future has publicly called on Alabama lawmaker Richard Shelby for blocking an amendment clarifying the role of crypto in the infrastructure bill that will be considered in the United States Senate. .

Fight for the Future used the donations it received in cryptocurrency to place a billboard in Birmingham, Alabama, asking lawmakers not to support measures it said would hurt crypto businesses and of blockchain. Shelby, one of two senators representing Alabama since 1987, opposed the introduction of a crypto amendment to infrastructure bill HR 3684 which was under consideration in the Senate at the time.

Image provided by Fight for the Future

Senator Shelby’s voters deserve to know he derailed the [crypto] amendment just to stroke his own ego and demand more money for the war, Fight for the Future director Evan Greer told Cointelegraph. We want to show elected officials that it is simply not acceptable to ignore issues like decentralized technology and cryptocurrency.

As it stands, the Infrastructure Bill suggests implementing stricter rules on companies handling cryptocurrencies and expanding reporting requirements for brokers, requiring transactions to be made. digital assets valued over $ 10,000 are reported to the Internal Revenue Service. Several senators collaborated to propose an amendment to exempt software developers, transaction validators and node operators as brokers while suggesting that tax reporting obligations only apply to intermediaries.

However, Senate lawmakers did not allow Shelby to add his own amendment to the bill, which would have added $ 50 billion to defense funding on top of the roughly $ 1,000 billion for highways, bridges and major infrastructure projects. The Alabama senator later claimed he supported the crypto amendment, but prioritized defense spending.

Related: Stricter Crypto Laws Will Stifle Innovation, Says SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce

The infrastructure bill will now go to the House of Representatives, where lawmakers have passed a non-binding resolution to vote on the measure by September 27. Several members of the House have already said they are in favor of changing the crypto provisions in the bill, but according to Fight for the Future, Representative Brad Sherman is one of the few voices to oppose. to such an amendment that the lawmaker has already called for a complete ban on cryptocurrencies in the United States.

Greer added:

There will be a number of opportunities over the next few months for the House of Representatives to correct the problematic crypto provision that was included in the infrastructure bill. We want members of Congress to know that we will be watching them and that we will not let them hide their positions on this matter.

Cointelegraph has contacted Senator Shelby, but has not received a response at the time of publication.

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