White House, Senator Lummis Blame Democrats for Derailing CLARITY Act in Senate
The White House blamed Senate Democrats for blocking the CLARITY Act and failing to pass it, arguing they put political games over doing what’s best for American technology and innovation. Senator Cynthia Lummis claimed the Democratic Party voted ‘No’ on the crypto market bill despite incorporating all bipartisan requirements.
CLARITY Act: White House and Cynthia Lummis Slam Democrats
The White House says Democrats are responsible for blocking the CLARITY Act after the crypto bill failed to pass in the Senate. On the other hand, Democrats claimed the final ethics language still did not adequately address President Trump and his family’s crypto ventures.
“The Democrats are to blame for the failure of the Clarity Act because they put political games over doing what’s best for American technology and innovation,” a White House official said in a statement. “The Trump Administration agreed to the most comprehensive and wide-ranging ethics provision in history.”
Senator Cynthia Lummis, lead CLARITY Act negotiator for Republicans, continues to highlight how all Democratic-requested changes were added to the bipartisan crypto bill, but all Democrats voted “No.”
On Monday, Lummis said Democrats wanted every non-decentralized trading protocol held to the same Bank Secrecy Act standards as financial institutions. “We incorporated that into the Clarity Act,” but they still chose politics over keeping US leadership in crypto.
How the Crypto Bill Failed in the Senate
The Senate failed to invoke cloture on the CLARITY Act and voted 49-50, well short of the 60 votes needed to begin debate. Every Democrat present voted ‘No’ while few Republicans also opposed or switched their votes, including Sens. Susan Collins, Josh Hawley, Jerry Moran, and even Senator Thom Tillis.
The bill would have created the first comprehensive market structure framework for the crypto industry, clarifying oversight between the SEC and the CFTC, adding consumer and bankruptcy protections, and setting rules for crypto exchanges, brokers, and software developers.
Cynthia Lummis said Democrats “were never truly serious.” In a statement after the vote, she said they “presented demands and the second we met them, they made new demands and moved the goal posts.” She claimed Democrats hate President Trump more than they like good policy.
The White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt said Democrats turned President Donald Trump’s crypto businesses into a political weapon even after Trump accepted what Witt called unprecedented ethics limits.
Ethics provisions would have barred all federal officials from issuing or sponsoring digital assets and required them to sell or place holdings in a trust. Patrick Witt also blamed big banks for derailing the crypto bill.
Republicans said the final text already included more than 120 Democratic-requested changes, including ethics language modeled on a Tillis-Gallego bipartisan proposal and a role for state attorneys general.
With November midterm elections approaching, another CLARITY Act vote in the Senate this year is widely seen as unlikely. Federal regulators like the SEC and CFTC are writing crypto rules using existing laws as the CLARITY Act failed to pass the Senate.
Also Check: Will Clarity Act (H.R.3633) be Signed Into Law in 2026?
