The long-awaited CLARITY Act is moving closer to a final breakthrough, and senior administration officials say there is still a workable path to passage—potentially on a very specific date.
Speaking at CoinDesk’s Consensus conference in Miami on Wednesday, Patrick Witt, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, laid out a timeline aimed at getting the bill across the finish line.
CLARITY Act Heads Toward July Finish Line
Witt said the target is July 4, framing it as a symbolic milestone: “We’re targeting July 4th. I think that would be a tremendous birthday present for America, celebrating our 250th.” According to Witt, the plan depends on several key steps lining up in time.
He said the Banking Committee markup would occur this month, followed by four working Senate weeks in June to complete floor passage, and then enough scheduling runway to secure a US House of Representatives vote before the Independence Day deadline.
The bill’s push toward that timetable is happening alongside ongoing negotiations over the language of the compromise text. After the draft language emerged from the Senate Banking Committee’s last Friday, major banking trade groups reviewed the proposed final version and signaled dissatisfaction.
A coalition that includes the Bank Policy Institute, the American Bankers Association, and the Independent Community Bankers of America argued that the CLARITY Act draft language “falls short” of the goal of prohibiting the payment of yield and interest on stablecoins.
In a piece by Eleanor Terrett of Crypto In America, the report said the banking trade groups plan to increase outreach to additional members of the Senate Banking Committee in the coming days as lawmakers prepare to mark up the legislation next week.
Witt acknowledged the political and stakeholder friction around the CLARITY Act’s wording, but argued that the compromise ultimately struck the right balance for the stablecoin-yield issue.
He said, “Crypto is unhappy, banks are unhappy, but they’re both about equally unhappy,” adding that the result reflected what he viewed as the correct negotiation outcome. In his view, the stablecoin-yield question was “closed.”
Beyond Stablecoin Yield
Even so, other issues remain in motion and could still affect the bill’s schedule. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, also attending Consensus Miami on Wednesday, suggested that the CLARITY Act could face further delay unless additional requirements are met before the bill advances.
She said the legislation cannot move forward without language barring US officials, including the President, from holding crypto industry ties. Gillibrand also indicated that additional ethics-related and policy components have become central to the negotiations.
Gillibrand predicted that, if those questions are resolved, the CLARITY Act could reach the president’s desk by the first week of August—a different end point than Witt’s July 4 target.
Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
