Thune Says Clarity Act Unlikely Before August Recess

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Thursday he does not expect the Clarity Act to reach a floor vote before the August recess, Politico reported. The South Dakota Republican's comments dim the near-term outlook for the digital-assets market-structure bill that would legalize most crypto activity in the U.S. and assign primary regulatory authority to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Ethics provisions are the main obstacle. Republicans introduced a revised 616-page draft Wednesday that would bar federal officials, including the president, from issuing or sponsoring digital assets. Enforcement of the ban would fall to the Department of Justice, not the Securities and Exchange Commission or the CFTC.

Democrats rejected the framework, arguing it does not go far enough in restricting President Donald Trump's ability to profit from his cryptocurrency activity, according to the report. Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, one of two Democrats who voted for an earlier draft in the Banking Committee, called the latest version "not a serious effort."

"I can't imagine that that's a serious effort – after all the work that we've done with our Republican colleagues, that they would take the months and months of work and somehow interpret that and turn around and think what they offered was even remotely close," Gallego said.