Lummis Releases 630-Page CLARITY Act Rewrite Days Before Key Senate Vote
Senate Republicans have put their final offer on crypto market structure in writing. On Thursday, Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming released a revised 630-page text of the CLARITY Act, the bill that would set federal rules for digital asset markets, ahead of a procedural vote scheduled for Tuesday, September 15, at 2:15 p.m. Eastern.
Lummis said the new version includes more than 100 changes requested by Democrats. Whether that is enough to win the Democratic votes the bill needs is the open question, because the provision Democrats have pressed hardest on, ethics limits covering the president’s crypto businesses, was left untouched.
What changed in the new text
The substitute to H.R. 3633 is 14 pages longer than the draft released on July 22. A line-by-line comparison by BeInCrypto, reported by Yahoo Finance, found changes in 14 of the bill’s 103 sections, concentrated in the Banking and Agriculture committee titles.
The largest rewrite concerns decentralized finance. The DeFi safe harbor section grew from about 285 words to about 2,200. Validators, node operators and publishers of wallet software would receive a full exemption from the Commodity Exchange Act, while front ends, governance systems and liquidity pools would be protected only from spot market rules. For platforms described as “decentralized in name only,” meaning protocols that claim to be decentralized but are still controlled by a company or small group, the CFTC would be required to write rules on how those controllers comply, which summaries of the text describe as a path to CFTC registration, and the Treasury would write matching anti-money laundering rules. The DeFi provisions would apply only to spot and cash transactions in digital commodities.
The text also clarifies what credit unions may do with digital assets, using definitions from the GENIUS Act stablecoin law, and extends CFTC spot oversight to transactions in payment stablecoins that run through CFTC-registered firms.
What did not change
Two of the most contested parts of the bill stayed as they were in July. The ethics title, which the White House has approved but which Democrats and some Republicans rejected over the summer, is unchanged. So is Section 10404, which bars stablecoin issuers from paying yield but has drawn criticism from banks for leaving room for rewards that resemble interest.
According to Crypto in America, a bipartisan ethics counterproposal from Senators Thom Tillis and Ruben Gallego, offered in late July, would bar federal elected officials and judges from issuing or sponsoring digital assets, require divestment or a blind trust, and let state attorneys general sue the Justice Department to enforce the rules. The White House and some Senate Republicans strongly oppose the state attorney general provision, and as of Thursday the administration had not responded to the proposal publicly or privately, the outlet reported.
The vote math
Tuesday’s vote is on cloture on the motion to proceed, the step that would let the Senate begin formal debate and amendments. It needs 60 votes. Republicans hold 53 seats, and at least two Republicans are expected to vote no, according to Crypto in America, which would mean finding at least nine Democrats.
The Republican doubts center on stablecoins. Senators Jerry Moran of Kansas and Josh Hawley of Missouri have raised concerns about how the bill treats stablecoin rewards and its effect on community banks. The American Bankers Association, the Independent Community Bankers of America and more than 60 state and regional banking groups have asked Senate leaders to close what they call loopholes, warning that rewards on stablecoins could pull deposits out of local banks.
On the Democratic side, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada is seen as a key vote. Kristin Smith of the Solana Policy Institute told Crypto in America it will be “really difficult for Democrats to vote for this” without progress on ethics.
The administration has kept up public pressure. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged senators on Wednesday to advance the bill and keep negotiating, and President Donald Trump called for passage of “a fair version” of the act at a White House event with crypto executives in August.
Why the deadline matters
The calendar is tight. The House has canceled its final two September voting weeks, and both chambers are expected to be out in October ahead of the November elections, pushing any House action into the lame-duck session. Analysts at Zerocap and elsewhere have said that a failed vote on Tuesday would likely end the bill’s chances for 2026.
For the crypto industry, the stakes go beyond any single provision. The CLARITY Act would divide oversight of digital assets between the SEC and CFTC, define when a token is a commodity rather than a security, and give legal protection to software developers and DeFi infrastructure. The SEC has already proposed its own crypto offering rules, but agency rules can be revised by future commissioners. A statute would be far harder to undo.
The revised text is the clearest sign yet of where Republicans think the compromise should land. Next Tuesday’s vote will show whether enough Democrats agree.