In brief
- The Senate took its first formal step toward voting on the Clarity Act, with Thune filing the motion to proceed early Saturday after an overnight session.
- The move tees up an initial procedural vote on September 15.
- Senators would need to reach agreement on several unresolved issues in the bill before now and then for the crypto market to get Clarity.
The U.S. Senate has taken its first formal step toward voting on the Clarity Act, with leadership moving early Saturday to tee up a vote on the crypto market-structure bill and lock in a September date.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed the motion to proceed on the bill, opening the multi-step cloture process the chamber uses to push contested legislation past its 60-vote threshold. The filing came too late to squeeze in a vote before senators leave for their August recess, but it queues up an initial procedural vote almost immediately after they return, with the first test set for 2:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday, September 15.
The cloture filing on the motion to proceed to H.R. 3633 is a procedural first step, not passage, but it signals that Republican leadership intends to make the bill an early priority when the Senate reconvenes.
The Clarity Act, if passed into law, would provide a formal legal structure for most cryptocurrency activity in the United States, drawing jurisdictional lines between the SEC and CFTC, and placing much of the industry under the purview of the latter. It is widely believed that the bill would provide the crypto market with a much-needed boost, giving traditional financial institutions further confidence to dive in.
Todays move from the Senate follows Thune's decision this week to push the vote past the break rather than force it before lawmakers left town, a delay that was driven by Democratic reluctance to advance the bill. Republicans still need roughly six Democratic crossovers to reach the 60-vote threshold, a gap that has not closed since the measure cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May with only two Democrats in support.
Now negotiators have several weeks to resolve the disputes still dogging it: the details of its illicit-finance and law-enforcement protections, the unresolved fight over stablecoin yield and rewards, and the government-ethics provisions covering President Donald Trump's crypto holdings.
Lawmakers are still trying to secure a bipartisan agreement on provisions governing President Trump's crypto holdings, an addendum negotiated with the White House that would require him to divest from crypto-related businesses. As of yet, there was still no word from the White House on the proposed addendum.
Should the bill clear the Senate, it would return to the House for another vote before reaching Trump's desk. With the September window closing quickly ahead of midterm campaigning, the coming weeks are widely seen as the last realistic chance for the legislation to become law this year.