Senate Keeps Clarity Act Alive With Crypto Bill Vote Set for September

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.

Today’s 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.