Senate Delays CLARITY Act Vote Until September

The U.S. Senate will not vote on the CLARITY Act before its August recess, pushing the crypto market-structure bill’s next realistic floor window into September.

The delay leaves lawmakers with a considerably tighter calendar. The Senate’s official 2026 legislative schedule lists August 10 through September 11 as a state work period, meaning regular floor business is expected to resume the week of September 14.

The setback comes less than three months after the Senate Banking Committee advanced H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, by a bipartisan 15-9 vote. According to the committee’s May 14 announcement, the measure was cleared for consideration on the Senate floor.

Its passage remains far from assured.

Democrats have continued demanding stronger ethics restrictions covering elected officials and their digital-asset interests. Senator Angela Alsobrooks, one of the Democrats who supported the bill in committee, said at the time that her vote did not guarantee support on the floor and specifically called for an ethics agreement as well as changes addressing law-enforcement concerns.

Those disagreements have persisted. Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren said in July that the latest Republican text contained loopholes that would fail to meaningfully restrict President Donald Trump’s crypto activities, while Republicans have defended the legislation as providing stronger consumer protections and clearer rules for digital-asset markets.

The legislation also faces the Senate’s 60-vote procedural threshold, making Democratic support necessary even if Republicans remain largely united. Axios reported this week that Democrats were reluctant to provide an initial procedural vote while negotiations were still underway.

The House passed its version of the CLARITY Act 294-134 in July 2025. Any changes approved by the Senate would still have to be accepted by the House or reconciled between the two chambers before the legislation could reach the president.