Lummis: Clarity Act could be frozen for four years

Sen. Cynthia Lummis warned the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act could be frozen for four years if the Senate does not pass the bill before the 2026 midterm elections. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also urged the Senate Banking Committee to move immediately.

Lummis chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Digital Assets and has led work on the legislation. She announced in December 2025 that she will not seek a second term; her current term ends in January 2027, shortening the window to advance the bill.

Lawmakers resolved a major stablecoin yield dispute with the Tillis-Alsobrooks compromise on March 20, which bans passive yield payments on stablecoin balances and permits activity-based rewards. Even with that agreement, the measure must still clear a series of steps: a Banking Committee markup, securing 60 votes on the Senate floor, and reconciling the Senate text with a House bill passed in July 2025 and a separate Senate Agriculture Committee draft advanced in January 2026. After those reconciliations, the bill would require the president’s signature to become law.

Democratic senators are pressing to add ethics language that would bar government officials from profiting from personal crypto ventures. The White House has resisted including those provisions, creating a policy disagreement between the parties.

The Senate returns from its Easter recess on April 13. Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee plan to begin the markup process in late April. Backers of the CLARITY Act caution that if the committee does not act in that window, the bill could be sidelined by the midterm campaign season and delayed at least until 2027, with some warning a full pause could extend to 2030.

Lummis wrote in a post: “This is our last chance to pass the Clarity Act until at least 2030. We can’t afford to surrender America’s financial future.” Bessent wrote in an op-ed that unclear U.S. rules have pushed crypto development to jurisdictions with clearer frameworks, naming Abu Dhabi and Singapore, and added, “Delay risks ceding momentum and innovation to foreign jurisdictions that have clearer rules for digital assets.”

A prediction market assigns roughly a 56% probability that President Trump would sign the bill before the end of 2026. Supporters say passage would create a federal framework for digital assets to reduce regulatory uncertainty; opponents point to remaining policy disputes and call for stronger ethics commitments.

The CLARITY Act’s path now depends on the April committee markup, subsequent floor votes, intercommittee negotiations and resolution of the ethics language before the midterm election cycle consumes the congressional calendar.