CLARITY Act Draft Set for July 20 Senate Vote as Ethics Dispute Lingers

Lawmakers could unveil a merged version of the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act next week, with Senate floor action targeted for July 20, people familiar with the negotiations said.

The new draft would combine the versions produced by the Senate Banking and Agriculture Committees into a single text. Reporters tracking the effort said more than 70 pages have been added to the unified version, which places heavier emphasis on consumer protections than earlier drafts.

Only three working weeks in July and the first week of August remain before lawmakers leave for the summer break and attention shifts to the fall midterm elections. The July 13 to Aug. 7 window is the industry's best shot at federal market-structure rules this year.

The biggest unresolved question is a Democrat-demanded restriction that would keep senior government officials, including the president, from maintaining business ties with the crypto sector. The merged text has not yet taken a position on that provision, according to reports. Ideas under discussion include allowing state attorneys general to sue over ethics violations.

Two Democrats who voted to advance the Banking Committee's version have warned they may not approve a final bill unless the ethics provisions are addressed. The White House has not signed off on the merged text or engaged in recent negotiations. A White House letter noted that Democrats had not nominated candidates for the minority seats at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

People familiar with the negotiations told media the effort had “slowed to a crawl” in recent weeks. Federal preemption of state rules also remains unsettled. Merging two committee products is easier to announce than to execute.

Senate Republican leaders, including Banking Chair Tim Scott and Majority Leader John Thune, have been coordinating a push for a July vote. Senator Cynthia Lummis, the Wyoming Republican who has championed the bill, has continually pushed it forward as a landmark consumer-first legislation. She called it “a consumer-friendly disclosure framework for digital assets. Not retrofitted from 1933. Built for 2026 and beyond.”

Lummis has also defended the bill against illicit-finance criticism from Senator Elizabeth Warren, pointing to more than 16 safeguards in the text. Outside endorsements have continued to accumulate. The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) backed the bill earlier this month.

Even if the Senate clears the bill, the House of Representatives must approve the Senate's version before it can reach President Trump's desk. The House has been slowed for weeks by Republican infighting. Miss the August recess, the effort could slip into 2027.

Crypto policy advocates are urging constituents to contact U.S. senators before Aug. 7, warning that the CLARITY Act has little chance of a second run. The crypto market has priced in a wait-and-see stance, with traders watching for a unified text to emerge before shifting positions.