Key Republicans are working to put together a $15 billion tranche of aid for farmers in this month’s appropriations bills.

Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), who chairs the Senate Appropriations Ag-FDA subcommittee, met Wednesday with House Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) and Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman (R-Ark.) to discuss a path forward for the package, the three men told POLITICO.

A final number is still up in the air, but they’re eyeing about $15 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions who was granted anonymity to discuss the planning. The talks come after the Trump administration’s December announcement of $11 billion in aid for row crop farmers and $1 billion for specialty crop farmers.

Boozman said in a brief interview that the group is hoping to finalize the plan “fairly shortly,” which will be crucial given the Jan. 30 deadline for passing the broader federal funding package. The three negotiators still need to get buy-in from GOP leadership in both chambers, according to the person close to the talks.

Thompson originally estimated that the second round of aid would need to be about $10 billion. He said lawmakers are now hoping to pass something “a little north” of that.

“We’re looking at exactly what the need is and how it would be dispersed,” Thompson said.

Hoeven and Thompson told POLITICO that the second round of farm aid would include money designated for specialty crop producers, who asked for more assistance after the Trump administration’s initial farm aid launch. USDA has not announced details about a timeline for sending out the $1 billion for specialty crop producers. Thompson said he’d also like to include producers of forestry and lumber products.

The Republicans’ plan comes as House Agriculture ranking member Angie Craig (D-Minn.) has introduced her own farmer aid plan that includes $17 billion in additional funds, with carveouts for specialty crops, foresters and sugar beet farmers included.

The Senate’s effort to pass sweeping new cryptocurrency regulations has been replete with tension from the start. Now, the process is at a low point after Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) bailed on a Thursday markup amid surprise industry opposition and whip count uncertainty.

Lawmakers, staff and lobbyists around the process say they’re exhausted, and the path forward is murky. But senators involved in the effort are vowing to forge on.

“I think there is a way forward,” said Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat who sits on Senate Banking and has been involved in negotiations.

The process around the crypto bill hit its biggest stumbling block yet late Wednesday after Coinbase, the largest U.S. digital asset exchange, came out against the latest text that Republicans unveiled this week. Scott and pro-crypto Republicans now need to make changes to appease the crypto sector — which the bill is aimed at boosting — while also wooing some Democrats, whose votes are needed to pass a law, and keeping on board some more skeptical GOP members.

It’s unclear when Scott will move to hold a markup again, but negotiations are almost certain to stretch into February as aides prepare to restart talks.

“It’s going to take a while to develop a plan on how to make another run at it,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), who chairs a Senate Banking subcommittee on crypto. “I’m not going to reach out to do it immediately. People need a chance to soak in what happened.”

The thorniest outstanding issue is a clash over whether to allow crypto exchanges to offer stablecoin rewards programs that pay an annual percentage yield, which has pitted the crypto world against banks. The crypto lobby risked losing the battle if a markup were held this week because Democrats and several GOP Wall Street allies were prepared to attach amendments aimed at addressing banks’ concerns.

The yield fight was “was really significant in derailing” the bill, Lummis told reporters Thursday.

In order to secure the votes to advance the measure, lawmakers need to go back to the drawing board to find a compromise that both banks and crypto exchanges can live with. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong told reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday that “there’s actually more consensus on this than people think.”

One factor that could help is that both sides are incentivized to cut a deal. Banks need a bill to pass in order to curb existing stablecoin rewards programs, which are being offered by top crypto firms, including Coinbase. And crypto firms say they need the long-term “regulatory clarity” that a market structure bill would provide by outlining what tokens are securities and what are commodities.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a Banking member who is concerned about the yield issue, told reporters that he is “optimistic we’ll have a successful markup this quarter.”

Jordain Carney contributed to this report.

The Senate’s bipartisan health care talks are on shaky ground.

Senators are leaving town until Jan. 26 sounding as uncertain as ever about the prospects of a bipartisan deal to revive the lapsed enhanced Obamacare subsidies after blowing through their informal deadline to release text before the chamber’s one-week break.

Although a small bipartisan group of lawmakers has been working furiously the past two weeks to reach a compromise to lower health costs, several Republicans expressed skepticism Thursday that the group could ultimately overcome some of the thorniest issues involved in extending the Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies that expired Dec. 31.

“Progress on that is sort of uneven,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday when asked about the status of the negotiations. “It doesn’t look like they’re close.”

Republicans involved in the talks disagree on what policy issue has left them in limbo, and some of them have started blaming Democrats for failing to come to the table on a compromise — an ominous sign for a deal that must have buy-in from both sides of the aisle.

Meanwhile, the White House threw its own curveball in the debate Thursday by unexpectedly releasing its own framework for lowering health care costs that would not include an extension of the subsidies.

“There’s been kind of a pause right now,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told reporters of the Capitol Hill health care talks. “We’ve all known that, in order to be able to advance something, we’re going to have to have buy-in from the White House. “

Murkowski added that the negotiations “got hung up on what everybody knew Republicans would get hung up on,” a reference to the so-called Hyde amendment that prevents the credits from funding abortion services.

But Sen. Bernie Moreno, one of the lead negotiators, denied that a fight over abortion coverage was the issue.

‘We’re waiting to get a signal from the Democratic leader because it seems like he’s just going to tell his conference not to agree on anything,” the Ohio Republican said in an interview Thursday, alluding to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Democratic negotiators, however, insisted Thursday they believe a deal is still possible and that Schumer isn’t even being looped in on their efforts at this point.

“We have not talked to leader Schumer about what we’re doing,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.). “There are still discussions, we are waiting for text. We will continue to work on this.”

Asked about the talks, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with Democrats, said they were “good” and that he was “optimistic.”

Schumer, however, tried this week to pass a three-year extension........

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