Cloture is filed on the CLARITY Act, queuing the first Senate procedural vote for September. Banks lobbying against the crypto bill are the shared adversary in a separate swipe-fee fight. Lum
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, the crypto market-structure bill Senator Cynthia Lummis has spent close to a year negotiating, missed a floor vote before the August recess, though Majority Leader John Thune has since filed cloture to tee up a September vote. On August 7, the same week that setback became public, Lummis and fellow crypto advocate Bernie Moreno of Ohio filed to cosponsor the Credit Card Competition Act, a swipe-fee bill the banking industry has spent roughly $200 million fighting. The two measures have nothing to do with each other on paper. They share one adversary, and that overlap is why the credit-card filing landed as a signal inside the crypto policy fight rather than a routine cosponsorship.
Lummis made her frustration public that day, signaling after nearly 11 months of negotiation that she had no intention of walking away from the bill. Banks have pressed lawmakers for tighter stablecoin-yield rules inside CLARITY, and that lobbying is one of the reasons the bill lost momentum before recess.
CLARITY has moved slowly because the hard parts came last. Lummis released an updated, merged text on July 22 that combined the versions passed by the Senate Banking and Agriculture Committees, then spent the following weeks trying to close the remaining gaps. Ethics was the largest. The revised bill added a prohibition on the president, vice president and members of Congress issuing or sponsoring digital assets, with penalties attached, a provision the industry and much of Congress had waited on before committing.
A bloc of Democrats still opposed the bill as written. Lummis pushed back from the floor, challenging holdouts to name the exact section they objected to and pointing to more than 100 Democratic wins already folded into the text, including 33 edits to Title One, three new titles, 23 sections aimed at illicit finance, and over 30 changes touching the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Stablecoin yield stayed unresolved. Some Republicans have leaned toward the banks’ position on how much yield stablecoin issuers should be allowed to pass through, and that single question has been enough to keep the whole bill short of a vote.
July 22, 2026
Lummis releases the merged Banking and Agriculture Committee text. The ethics section is still open.Late July 2026
A Democratic bloc opposes the draft. Lummis presses holdouts to name the section they reject.August 7, 2026
Democrats block an August floor vote. The same day, Lummis and Moreno file to cosponsor the Credit Card Competition Act.August 8, 2026
Thune files cloture on the motion to proceed to the CLARITY Act (H.R.3633, Calendar #423). Lummis posts “Clearing the way for Clarity.“September 2026 · vote queued
First procedural vote lands only after the Senate returns. Cloture needs 60, and Republicans are seven votes short.The Credit Card Competition Act forces the largest banks, those above $100 billion in assets, to enable a second card network outside the Visa-Mastercard pair, letting merchants choose which one processes a transaction. Retailers back it, banks fight it, and the Electronic Payments Coalition has spent about $200 million against it since 2023. That is the same banking bloc standing between CLARITY and a floor vote. By lending their names to a bill the industry wants dead, two of the Senate’s most crypto-aligned members put weight on the opposite side of a group frustrating their priority.
CLARITY Act What it targets Splitting crypto oversight between two federal regulators Bank position Pushing tighter stablecoin-yield limits, slowing the bill Lummis and Moreno Lead advocates pressing for a vote Credit Card Competition Act What it targets Breaking the Visa-Mastercard routing lock on card payments Bank position Opposed outright, roughly $200 million spent against it Lummis and Moreno New cosponsors as of August 7Plenty of coverage has framed the cosponsorship as retaliation, and the timing invites it. The framing runs ahead of the evidence, though. The Credit Card Competition Act predates the CLARITY fight by years and rests on swipe-fee economics unrelated to digital assets, so backing it is a defensible position on its own terms. Neither senator has described the filing as leverage in their own words. Lummis did amplify the framing, reposting a reporter’s account that tied the cosponsorship directly to frustration with the banking industry over crypto, which is closer to an endorsement of the retaliation read than a denial of it. What holds up factually is the shared adversary and the alignment it produces. Calling it deliberate strategy is an interpretation. Calling it confirmed retaliation claims knowledge that is not on the record.
Leader Thune filed cloture on the motion to proceed to the CLARITY Act on August 8, moving the bill toward the floor rather than leaving it parked until fall. Swipe-fee advocates expect their bill to move as an amendment to must-pass fall legislation rather than a standalone vote, and President Trump has already endorsed the Marshall version, giving it cover CLARITY’s opponents cannot easily match. The banking lobby now defends two fronts at once, and its room to hold the line on stablecoin yield may narrow if the credit-card threat gains ground. The cloture motion still has to survive the procedural votes that follow, and stablecoin yield remains the unsettled item that could cost Republican support on the floor. That is the pressure behind Lummis moving on two bills at once this week.
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