House fails to counter Biden veto and rescind SAB 121 in latest vote

The US House of Representatives obtained insufficient votes to overrule President Joe Biden’s earlier veto and rescind SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) 121.

On July 11, 228 House members voted for HJ Res. 109 to end SAB 121, 184 voted against the resolution, and 21 abstained.

The outcome represents majority support for overturning SAB 121 but is below the two-thirds vote threshold needed to counter a presidential veto.

Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett reported that several Democrats changed their stance since an earlier vote in May. Dean Phillips (D-MN), Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), and Marc Veasey (D-TX) changed their votes to no, opposing the end of SAB 121.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Jackson (D-IL), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), and Shri Thanedar (D-MI) changed their votes to yes, favoring rescinding SAB 121.

Republican Drew Ferguson (R-GA) corrected his July vote, changing it from no to yes.

In May, the House voted in favor of the resolution 228 to 182, with 19 abstaining. The Senate voted in favor 60 to 38, with two abstaining.

Lawmakers and industry comment

Representative Mike Flood, who originally introduced the resolution, commented on the failed vote. He said:

“I will continue to… pursue other pathways to end SAB 121 so that we can get government out of the way of growing our digital financial future.”

Before the House, Flood called SAB 121 “not a political issue… [but] simply a bad regulation” that restricts banks from involvement in digital asset custody, adding that the SEC has overstepped its authority in defining bank custody policy.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry condemned Biden’s veto, stating the administration would “rather play politics and side with power-hungry bureaucrats over the American people” than permit the resolution’s success.

The Blockchain Association also said it intends to “stop [the] ill-conceived SEC rule” and plans to explore avenues in Congress and courts to eliminate SAB 121’s restrictions.

The American Banking Association reiterated that SAB 121 requires banks to hold customer crypto on their balance sheets, which “effectively precludes banks from offering digital asset custody at scale” and limits bank adoption of Bitcoin ETFs and tokenization. It expressed support for overturning SAB 121.

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