Bessent Pushes Senate CLARITY Act Vote Before August Recess

"These additions represent an important step toward improving crypto crime investigations without limiting enforcement powers," the association wrote.

Two sections of the bill are still blocking bipartisan agreement. The ethics provision is one. Democrats want enforcement against lawmakers to go beyond the Department of Justice. The BRCA provision is the other. It protects decentralized finance developers from being held liable for crimes committed by users on their platforms unless prosecutors can prove intentional facilitation of money laundering. The measure also stops many DeFi developers from being classified as money transmitters. That protection has drawn sharp criticism from some lawmakers.

Prediction markets put the odds of Senate passage before the August recess at roughly 26.5%. That number has been falling as the calendar tightens and the two sticking points remain unresolved.

Bessent is betting that public pressure and the endorsement from law enforcement can break the logjam. Whether that is enough to get the bill through a Senate that has punted crypto legislation for years is the open question heading into what could be the last voting weeks before summer break.