Senator Cynthia Lummis says she isn't giving up on the CLARITY Act after the Senate left for its August recess without holding a vote on the crypto market-structure bill she has championed for years.
"You all know me and how long and hard I've fought for this bill, so you can imagine how frustrated I am," Lummis said.
A Deadline That Kept Slipping
Lummis had said as recently as late July that she expected a vote before the summer break, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune confirmed there would be no CLARITY Act vote in August, pushing action to September instead. The bill needs 60 votes to clear the Senate, meaning Republicans' 53-seat majority requires at least seven Democratic votes, and negotiators have been stuck on provisions covering how much oversight authority goes to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission versus the SEC.
What's Actually at Stake
The CLARITY Act would divide federal crypto oversight between the SEC and CFTC while addressing ethics, enforcement and consumer-protection rules that the industry has spent years asking Congress to settle. Its stall comes at an awkward political moment, coinciding with the broader delay that pushed floor action past the August recess and continued scrutiny of crypto ventures tied to the Trump family, both of which have made the bill's already narrow path through the Senate even harder to predict.
Related: Senate Delays CLARITY Act Vote Until After August Recess
