Lawmakers on the US House Agriculture Committee voted in favor of the Digital Asset Market Clarity, or CLARITY, Act, advancing the bill further in Congress.
In a 47-6 vote on Tuesday, an overwhelming majority of lawmakers on the committee approved the CLARITY Act to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets. Committee Chair GT Thompson said the bill would be sent to the House for consideration, adding that any members offering opposing views would have the opportunity to submit them by Friday.
The vote came alongside debate on the House Financial Services Committee discussing an amendment that could add protections for blockchain developers to the CLARITY Act. At the time of publication, the committee had not voted on the bill.
According to its sponsors and co-sponsors, the CLARITY Act is intended to establish clear rules under which digital asset companies can operate in the United States, by also clarifying whether certain investment vehicles fall under the purview of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Consideration of the bill, first introduced in May, comes as the Senate is expected to vote on the GENIUS Act — legislation to regulate payment stablecoins.
Another committee debates amendments to the CLARITY Act
House Financial Services Committee members spent much of a Tuesday markup hearing debating the merits of amendments to the CLARITY Act. Ranking member Maxine Waters proposed amending the crypto market structure to address allegations of conflicts of interest related to US President Donald Trump’s crypto businesses, including using the bill to personally enrich himself and his family, while Representative Brad Sherman proposed another amendment at the event to prohibit what he called potential “bailouts” of the crypto industry in the future.
“The purpose of [the CLARITY Act] is to build a superhighway to crypto becoming so significant that it poses a systemic risk, and then make sure that every Republican member of this committee can say they’re against bailouts but find an excuse not to prohibit bailouts but to leave in [provisions] that will allow for the bailouts,” said Sherman.
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Committee Chair French Hill, who proposed the amendment that could add protections for blockchain developers to the bill, said the legislation “…was not about bailouts, it was about consistency.” According to the Arkansas representative, the CLARITY Act would address “…when is a digital asset considered a security under the oversight of the [SEC] or a non-security or digital commodity under the authority of the [CFTC]” and change the US regulatory approach to crypto.
Other lawmakers sparred on events surrounding the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX in 2022 and how regulators responded at the time. Neither Waters’ nor Sherman’s amendments passed the committee in a voice vote. At the time of publication, the committee members had not voted on Hill’s amendment.
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