Lawmakers are now under more pressure to get the CLARITY Act across Congress before the August recess. The crypto bill is set to slip deeper into the summer in Washington with Senate delays and a lack of legislative clarity.
CLARITY Act Eyes Major Deadline In June
New worries came in when Senate Majority Leader John Thune is said to have told Republican lawmakers in the Senate that the chamber would not be in session through June to finish its reconciliation bill. Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman broke the news on social media. Sherman wrote on X that “the Senate will go home until June, leaving the reconciliation bill unfinished.”
He added that the move was in response to disagreements on a funding provision for the Department of Justice. It immediately raised questions as to whether Congress can still get the CLARITY Act to them before the August recess.
Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett warned that the CLARITY Act is now facing a crowded Senate schedule. The lineup includes reconciliation talks, FISA debates, and a housing bill recently approved by the House. Thus, despite the Senate advancing the crypto bill with a 15-9 vote last week, things look wary.
“This means the Clarity Act will now be competing for floor time in June,” Terrett wrote. She further emphasized the timeline’s importance. For this, Terrett added there are only “four working weeks in June and just three in July before the August recess.”
“Clarity Act passage before August recess just got more challenging.I tell my clients that the most valuable commodity in Washington, DC is Senate floor time — and I always run the ‘Senate math’ to figure out if we have enough floor time for passage,” said former Senate aide Anne Kelly.
“The most valuable commodity in Washington, DC is Senate floor time,” Kelly wrote. She also referred to other areas of potential disagreements that could take up valuable time. These involving reconciliation spending, supplemental funding requests and Senate nominations.
Senator Cynthia Lummis Remains Optimistic
Despite the compressed time frame, Senator Cynthia Lummis said legislators are working the bill behind the scenes. She noted that lawmakers are pressing forward on developing a larger crypto framework package that will encompass the CLARITY Act at some point.
Lummis told FOX Business’ Charles Payne that the Senators are working on several crypto-related bills in what they hope will be a package before the bills get put on the floor.
“We’re going to take the bill that we passed in the Senate Banking Committee last week,” Lummis said. Lawmakers are also expected to combine it with bill from the Senate Agriculture Committee. It would then provide oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the framework, she added.
Senators also will incorporate ethics provisions and “technical changes to the GENIUS Act.” Thereafter, she is looking at a Senate floor vote as soon as “hopefully sometime this summer.”
