Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow, chair of the United States Senate Agriculture Committee, has announced that she will be leaving office in 2025.
Stabenow stated in a Jan. 5 statement that she will serve out the remainder of her 6-year term in the Senate before “pass[ing] the torch” to other US representatives.
The senator was one of the legislators that introduced the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, or DCCPA, a bill that would have given the Commodity Futures Trading Commission more regulatory sway over digital assets and provided further regulatory clarification for cryptocurrencies.
During her final two years in office, Stabenow stated she would concentrate on legislation targeted at bettering “the lives of Michiganders,” but she made no mention of the crypto bill directly. After the 2024 elections, her term will end on Jan. 3, 2025. She has been a senator since 2001.
Stabenow presided over hearings into commodities-classified digital assets as chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, including one in December looking into the demise of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
The senator persisted in pushing for the bill’s approval even after the exchange declared bankruptcy in November and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who frequently pushed for the DCCPA, was under investigation by the law.
One of the DCCPA’s coauthors and the chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, John Boozman, is anticipated to serve in that position through January 2029.
Several government officials and business executives, including CFTC commissioner Kristin Johnson and CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation Sheila Warren, have also endorsed the legislation.
Boozman apparently intended to resubmit the crypto legislation in December once the 118th Congress had taken office. Despite the U.S. Senate’s beginning of business on January 3, the House of Representatives has yet to elect a new Speaker, creating a historic impasse.
