NEW YORK, NY – AUGUST 28: American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten speaks at the Wall Street March on August 28, 2025 in New York City.
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The American Federation of Teachers, a powerful union representing 1.8 million members, is calling on the Senate Banking Committee to reconsider the Responsible Finance and Innovation Act, a cryptocurrency market structure bill, calling the proposed legislation “both reckless and irresponsible” in a letter obtained exclusively by CNBC.
AFT President Randi Weingarten wrote in a letter to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) that the union opposes the bill due to “serious risks to working families’ pensions and the stability of the overall economy.”
“The virtual currency legislation considered by the Committee over the past few months is of deep concern to us,” Weingarten added.
AFT is concerned that in passing the Cryptocurrency Bill, the government will open the floodgates to widespread fraud and unethical conduct across retirement systems, including the AFT Pension.
“This bill pretends that crypto assets are stable and mainstream, when in fact they are not. This bill is not just silent about crypto assets, it strips crypto assets of the few safeguards that exist and erodes many protections for traditional securities. If passed, it would make many assets less secure and challenge retirement investing as a whole,” Weingarten wrote.
The AFT’s specific issue with the bill was allowing non-cryptocurrency companies to place their stock on the blockchain and circumvent existing securities regulatory frameworks. Wall Street is interested in the idea of ”tokenizing” all financial assets, and CEO Larry Fink black rockthe world’s largest asset manager and leading evangelist of this concept.
“This loophole and the erosion of traditional securities laws will have dire consequences. Pension and 401(k) plans will end up with risky assets even if invested in traditional securities,” Weingarten wrote.
She argued that the bills being considered by the committee will do little to curb fraud, illegality, and corruption that continue to be rampant in the cryptocurrency market. Weingarten criticized the bill as “irresponsible” and “reckless.”
“We believe that this bill, if passed, could lay the foundation for the next financial crisis,” she wrote.
In October, the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor union, voiced its opposition to the Senate Banking Committee over the draft virtual currency bill.
CNBC also confirmed Thursday that the company’s CEOs said: bank of america, city and wells fargois scheduled to meet with lawmakers to discuss proposals for the cryptocurrency market structure.
The current proposed bill is based on a bill passed by the House of Representatives over the summer, and Scott is co-sponsored by major crypto backers Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio). While this aims to create a structure to regulate digital assets, it also raises questions about tokenized securities that are not specifically cryptocurrencies.
Tokenization is a key issue as the bill gains momentum on Capitol Hill, posing a hurdle to gaining the support from Democrats needed for passage. Previous reporting from CNBC indicated that Senate sponsors would need votes from at least seven Democrats to pass the bill. At the CNBC CFO Council Summit in Washington, D.C., last week, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) told attendees, “I’m in crypto hell right now trying to end the market structure bill.”
According to Politico, Warner was among a group of Democratic senators who met on Monday to review the Senate bank draft and consider counterproposals.
Many Democrats, including Warren, are also concerned about the balance of crypto regulatory oversight between the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Meanwhile, states are concerned that their laws will be preempted by new federal legislation, leaving states powerless to protect their residents from fraud. Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin outlined these concerns in a letter to the Senate Bank, writing: “A sweeping provision that exempts important parts of the financial industry from state oversight is a recipe for disaster for millions of savers.”
The longest government shutdown in U.S. history stalled progress on the Senate version of the Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act for weeks. At the Blockchain Association Policy Summit in Washington, DC on Tuesday morning, Senator Lummis provided insight into when the Senate version of the Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act is expected to be introduced. She said her goal is to share a draft by the end of this week, then let it be vetted by the crypto industry and Republicans and Democrats before moving forward with a price increase next week.
