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McHenry Calls CLARITY Act Passage Inevitable, Cites Telecom Precedent
Former House Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry says the CLARITY Act will pass, comparing its potential impact to the 1996 Telecom Act. No timeline has been disclosed.
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Patrick McHenry sees the CLARITY Act as a done deal. The former House Financial Services Committee chair told Axios the bill will pass, comparing its potential impact to the 1996 Telecommunications Act – a law that rewired how Americans got phone service, internet access, and cable.
The Telecom Act restructured an entire sector's competitive landscape, opened markets to new players, and set the terms for communications company growth for decades. McHenry thinks the CLARITY Act can do the same for digital assets.
He was directly involved in moving the bill through the legislative process. That insider confidence carries weight, even without a published timeline.
The CLARITY Act aims to give crypto companies a single set of rules. They would know which regulator they answer to, what counts as a security versus a commodity, and what compliance looks like on a day-to-day basis. Right now, U.S. crypto firms operate under a patchwork of overlapping agency jurisdictions, court decisions, and informal guidance that shifts depending on who is in charge.
That ambiguity is costing the sector real growth, stakeholders say. Companies cannot build long-term compliance infrastructure when the rules might change based on the next enforcement action or court ruling. Investors cannot price regulatory risk accurately when the framework is this murky.
The Telecom Act comparison is deliberate. McHenry did not use it casually. The 1996 law was messy in places and contested for years afterward. It was also transformative. His argument is that the CLARITY Act has that same scope – not a tweak, a reset.