Sen. Cynthia Lummis has opened a final public review window for the CLARITY Act, saying negotiators will publish updated legislative text over the July 4 holiday and seek a Senate vote later in the month.
Speaking with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, Lummis said months of negotiations—dating back to last Labor Day and involving lawmakers, industry representatives and banks—have produced a revised bill that will be released for “one last really thorough look” before floor consideration. She added Senate leaders are working with Majority Leader John Thune to secure time on the chamber’s July agenda.
What’s new, and why it matters
- Timeline: Updated text to be published around July 4, with a push for a Senate vote later in July.
- Negotiation scope: Lawmakers say they spent thousands of hours reconciling competing priorities, including provisions from the separately debated GENIUS Act and feedback from the banking sector.
- Regulatory goal: The CLARITY Act aims to create clearer regulatory boundaries for U.S. digital-asset markets.
Banking concerns and Lummis’s response
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned the bill could let crypto firms offer rewards programs that look like interest-bearing bank products without equivalent safeguards. Lummis pushed back, saying current language—particularly a revised Section 301—was rewritten to prevent rewards from being tied to account balances in a way that resembles interest. She also said negotiators added anti-money-laundering (AML) measures during drafting to address bank and regulator concerns.
Flashpoint: Section 604
A major sticking point remains Section 604, which folds in the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act and would bar certain non-custodial participants—such as open-source developers, self-custody tool providers, software contributors, and some DeFi infrastructure operators—from automatically being labeled money transmitters. That carve-out has prompted recent warnings:
- Four law enforcement organizations wrote to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and White House digital assets adviser Patrick Witt, arguing Section 604 could create regulatory gaps and impair investigations by weakening KYC/AML requirements compared to traditional finance.
- The Alliance to End Human Trafficking urged Senate leaders John Thune and Chuck Schumer to revisit the same language, saying it could introduce ambiguities that hinder monitoring of activity tied to human trafficking, organized crime, child exploitation, sanctions evasion and other illicit conduct.
What’s next
With the updated text set for release, stakeholders will have a brief final window to review and comment before senators push for a vote. The CLARITY Act’s fate will hinge on whether negotiators can balance crypto-industry demands for clarity and innovation with banks’ and law enforcement’s calls for consumer protections and robust AML rules.
Expect intense scrutiny in the coming weeks as industry groups, banks, civil-society organizations and law enforcement press their positions before the Senate takes up the bill.
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