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White House Warns CLARITY Act on Sept. 15 Edge
Witt accused Schumer of blocking the vote before recess. Cloture needs 60 votes; Moreno expects all 53 Republicans and at least 7 Democrats to back it.
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The White House is ratcheting up pressure on Senate Democrats ahead of a Sept. 15 vote on the CLARITY Act, arguing that lawmakers have spent years hashing out crypto market structure and that a delayed deal is now settled policy. On Aug. 8, Patrick Witt, executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats of stalling the procedural vote before the August recess while demanding more negotiation time. Witt said Congress has worked on crypto market structure legislation since the 2022 collapse and that Senate talks on the CLARITY Act have been running since last summer. “If they can’t get there by September 15, they never will,” he said.
Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno echoed that message, framing the coming vote as a choice over whether the U.S. maintains its lead in digital-asset innovation or cedes ground to countries such as China. Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 3633, setting a 2:15 p.m. vote on Sept. 15. That step would not pass the CLARITY Act. It would decide whether the Senate ends debate on the motion and begins formal consideration of the legislation. The procedural vote still requires 60 votes, leaving Republicans dependent on Democratic support. In an X post, Moreno said he expects all 53 Senate Republicans to back cloture, meaning at least seven Democrats would need to vote yes for the bill to advance.