Key Takeaways
- Patrick McHenry has told media that CLARITY Act passage is a question of when, not if.
- The Senate Banking Committee advanced CLARITY 15-9 on May 14, but a floor vote remains undecided.
- Senate Majority Leader John Thune says a vote may miss the window before August recess.
A Telecom-Sized Comparison
Patrick McHenry, the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee who helped shepherd the CLARITY Act through the House in 2025, told Bloomberg in an interview that the bill’s passage is “a question of when, not if.” It’s the most confident public statement yet from one of the bill’s chief architects, arriving as the legislation’s Senate timeline has repeatedly slipped.
McHenry made a similar case in a July 16 op-ed for Fortune, where he argued the CLARITY Act represents a regulatory overhaul on par with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the law that set the ground rules for the internet era. He opined:
“The framework in the CLARITY Act can ensure entrepreneurs feel confident in creating jobs and building businesses without fear of arbitrary or unexplained crackdowns.”
His argument centers on competitiveness and McHenry believes that Congress now stands at a crossroads where the United States can either remain the world’s technological and financial capital by writing clear rules for digital assets, or cede ground to jurisdictions that are already moving faster.
Where the Senate Stands Now
McHenry’s optimism runs up against a messier reality on Capitol Hill. The Senate Banking Committee advanced the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act by a bipartisan 15-9 vote on May 14, with Democratic senators Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks joining Republicans in support. Since then, the bill has stalled repeatedly over unresolved disputes, including government ethics provisions limiting officials’ crypto holdings and how stablecoin yield should be treated under the new framework.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said this week the bill is likely to miss its window before Congress’s August recess, though he told reporters he’d still like to “at least get Clarity started” on the floor before lawmakers leave town.
Grassroots pressure has kept pace with the delays as the advocacy group Stand With Crypto logged 950,000 contacts to lawmakers pushing for a vote, with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong saying the bill is ready for the full Senate floor.
Not the First “Inevitable” Prediction
McHenry isn’t the only prominent voice betting on eventual passage, given that less than 72-hours ago, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the bill’s progress as being at the “one-yard line.” Similarly, crypto policy analyst Sandra Ro told news media back in April that the bill could pass by July “if lucky,” a deadline that is now nearing its end.
That said, the most obvious and practical test of McHenry’s “when, not if” posturing will now be if Thune finds floor time before the recess or punts the bill into September, when the Senate returns for a three-week session. Either way, McHenry’s comparison to the Telecommunications Act sets a high bar, i.e. that 1996 law took years to negotiate but reshaped an entire industry once it passed.