US lawmaker presses CLARITY Act lame-duck vote

TLDR

Representative French Hill is pushing to revive the US CLARITY Act in Congress's post-election lame-duck session, aiming to lock in a permanent crypto market-structure law.

1. The CLARITY Act narrowly failed a 4950 Senate vote in September, and Hill now wants another attempt during the short lame-duck window.
2. The bill would clarify SEC versus CFTC jurisdiction over digital assets and create a statutory framework that goes beyond current agency rulemaking.
3. Prospects are uncertain, so crypto markets are likely to remain driven by SEC and CFTC proposals unless a late compromise lets CLARITY pass.

Deep Dive

1. What Is Happening Politically

French Hill, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, has renewed calls for passing the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY) during the lame-duck session after Novembers elections. In mid-September, the Senate failed to advance the bill in a 4950 procedural vote, falling 11 votes short of the 60 needed to open debate, with one senator absent. Reports note that the House already passed an earlier version in 2025, so any revised Senate text would need reconciliation before becoming law. Hill has reiterated in interviews that he still hopes CLARITY can clear the Senate during the roughly 22 days it will meet before the next Congress, arguing that permanent law is needed to keep the US number one in digital assets and blockchain technology as summarized by crypto.news.

2. What CLARITY Would Change Versus Today

CLARITY is designed to draw clearer lines between what counts as a digital commodity under the CFTC and what falls under SEC securities jurisdiction, and to define registration rules for key crypto market participants. Current SEC and CFTC actions use existing authority and exemptive relief to address topics like tokenized stocks, custody and exchange oversight, but Hill argues these agency rules fall short of the durable clarity only legislation can provide, since they can be reversed or challenged more easily, as highlighted in coverage by Decrypt. In practice, CLARITY could give spot exchanges and major tokens a firmer legal footing, reducing case-by-case litigation risk, especially for assets that sit near the boundary between commodities and securities.

3. What To Watch Next For Crypto Markets

Prospects for a lame-duck vote are mixed. Negotiators remain divided on ethics rules for officeholders, consumer protection, illicit finance and how stablecoin rewards interact with banking, all of which helped sink the first Senate attempt. At the same time, CFTC Chairman Mike Selig and SEC Chair Paul Atkins are pressing ahead with their own crypto proposals, including draft rules that would treat Bitcoin and XRP as digital commodities and create a new category of federally regulated crypto exchanges, according to recent analysis. With several commissioner seats vacant at both agencies, rulemaking may be slow, but these proposals now anchor expectations while CLARITYs fate is unresolved.

Conclusion

A US lawmaker is trying to use the lame-duck session to salvage a comprehensive crypto market-structure bill that already failed once in the Senate. For now, crypto markets must navigate a patchwork of SEC and CFTC initiatives, with the possibility that a last-minute legislative breakthrough could consolidate those efforts into a more stable, statutory framework. Watching Senate negotiations, major agency rule proposals and how large exchanges respond will be key to understanding how the regulatory landscape evolves.