The CLARITY Act may be closer to a Senate floor moment than headlines suggest, but according to Cody Carbone, CEO of The Digital Chamber, actual passage this week was never realistic. What matters now, he says, is whether the Senate can even get the process started before time runs out.
The Ethics Language Is the Real Bottleneck
New bipartisan ethics language was sent to the White House just one day earlier, drafted by Senators Thom Tillis and Ruben Gallego along with other Democratic senators. Carbone said the language centers specifically on President Trump, since Democrats need to show their base they pushed to limit the president’s ability to profit from digital assets before agreeing to advance the bill.
Two provisions stand out. Democrats want state attorneys general given a formal enforcement role, rather than leaving oversight solely to the president’s own US attorney general. They’re also pushing for the president to divest any money he’s made from crypto. “This bill has become solely about ethics, which is unfortunate,” Carbone said, noting the underlying legislation itself runs far beyond that single issue.
A 616-Page Bill Stuck on One Question
The CLARITY Act itself runs 616 pages, creating a landmark regulatory framework, according to Carbone, who called it a foundational statute that would let the US lead on digital asset policy. Whether it advances now depends almost entirely on how the White House responds to the ethics language over the coming days.
Why Full Passage Isn’t Happening This Week
Even under a best-case scenario, Carbone said there simply isn’t enough time for the bill to clear both chambers now. The House is already out of session, meaning any Senate passage this week couldn’t reach the House floor regardless.
He walked through why the process takes longer than most people assume. A motion to proceed has to get the bill onto the Senate calendar first. From there, a Senate cloture vote needs 60 votes and at least 30 hours of debate beforehand, on top of expected amendments. Given the timeline, Carbone said the realistic goal is narrower: get procedural votes moving next week, establish that 60 to 65 votes are achievable, and set the bill up so that when the Senate returns in September, all that remains is a final passage vote, followed by a single House vote before it reaches the president’s desk.
A Narrow, Closing Window
Carbone was blunt about the stakes of inaction. If voting doesn’t begin next week, he said, the bill likely loses its chance to move forward this year entirely. September offers only three weeks of session, October is gone entirely, and after that comes the election and a lame duck period, a sequence that leaves little room for delay.
Will the August Recess Get Canceled?
Asked whether Senate leadership might cancel the August recess to force the issue, Carbone said he’d be shocked if that happened. In an election year, he said, senators from both parties need to be home campaigning, and retaining the majority in November matters more to both sides than any single piece of legislation, CLARITY included. He described recess-cancellation talk as “good theater” rather than a serious possibility.