In brief
- The Senate leaves for a month-long recess without holding a procedural vote on the Clarity Act.
- Republicans need roughly six Democratic crossovers to clear the 60-vote threshold.
- If it passes the Senate, the bill returns to the House before it can reach Trump's desk.
The U.S. Senate will not vote on the Clarity Act before its August recess, pushing the crypto market structure bill to September and into the closing weeks before midterm campaigning consumes the calendar.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) confirmed the delay late Thursday. "The Dems are insistent on no Clarity vote," he said in remarks posted by his press office, adding that he had worked with the bill's sponsors and that Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) "was great, and we're getting that queued up first thing when we come back."
The chamber leaves Friday and returns in mid-September for a few weeks before attention shifts to November's elections, making that window the last realistic one this year. A source familiar with the matter told The Block that Senate Democrats were reluctant to vote ahead of the midterms given the crypto industry's growing political influence, and that the delay buys time to assemble the 60 votes needed.
That math has not changed since the bill cleared the Senate Banking Committee 15-9 in May, when only two Democrats crossed, Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD). Roughly six are needed on the floor. Republican support has also wavered. Should the bill clear the Senate, it would return to the House for another vote before reaching President Donald Trump.
Ethics remains the roadblock
The sticking points are the same ones that have dogged the bill all year: stablecoin rewards, whether the bill arms law enforcement adequately against illicit finance, and above all the ethics provisions covering Trump's own crypto holdings.
Those provisions could pay him. An addendum negotiated by Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Gallego, still unreleased and being worked out with the White House, would require the president to divest from crypto-related businesses. Forced divestiture would also let him defer federal capital gains tax on those holdings, potentially for years, Bloomberg reported, and if he held the replacement investments until death the gains would escape tax entirely.
