Democrats 'chose visceral hatred for' Donald Trump over crypto Clarity Act, Lummis says

Senator Cynthia Lummis said she was "dismayed, dumbfounded and saddened" that the Senate failed to advance a key procedural vote for the Clarity Act, a bipartisan market-structure bill intended to delineate how the SEC and CFTC should oversee crypto markets. Speaking at CoinDesk's Policy & Regulation conference on Sept. 22, 2026, Lummis attributed the bill's collapse to Democratic opposition she characterized as driven by animus toward President Donald Trump. Lummis said every Democrat voted against the procedural motion and urged the crypto industry to "pin it on the Democrats," arguing that the bill had been the product of cross-party negotiations and expanded from roughly 300 pages to over 600 after Democrats requested additions such as bankruptcy protections. She also named Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Kirsten Gillibrand as "honest brokers" in the negotiations. The Senate's procedural defeat followed a vote in which three Republicans joined the Democrats in opposition; Sen. Thom Tillis changed his vote to "no" at the last minute for procedural reasons. The Clarity Act aimed to provide statutory clarity on issues including oversight of spot markets and the application of securities laws to crypto activities. Members of the House Financial Services Committee and other lawmakers reacted the same day, saying that statutory clarity for crypto remains necessary despite the setback. Chairman French Hill and Rep. Ritchie Torres both argued the Clarity Act or a successor bill is still needed to establish legal certainty. Torres and Hill also said political fallout from President Trump's memecoin and his disclosed crypto gains complicated Democratic support; Trump reported $1.4 billion in crypto-related earnings for 2025 in a mid-year financial disclosure. Hill noted that a similar stablecoin-focused bill, the GENIUS Act, had advanced on a bipartisan basis previously, and suggested more bipartisan work will be required after the midterm elections.