White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt responded to Thune’s remarks in an interview with CoinDesk on Thursday, arguing that the first week of August should still be open for possible Senate action. Witt said he is “puzzled” by Thune’s sentiment and is “slightly more optimistic,” while acknowledging that the bill is unlikely to get a final vote in July.
“It’s the first week of August that the Senate is in session,” Witt said in the interview with CoinDesk TV. “So I wouldn’t count it.”
The midterm congressional elections will take place in November and lawmakers are expected to use their summer vacation to campaign. The House and Senate return for about three weeks in September, and if the Senate manages to pass Clarity, the House will still have to follow suit.
Clarity – even more so than last year’s Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for American Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act – is the crypto industry’s top priority when it comes to crypto policy, in hopes that it will finally secure a permanent legal basis for crypto activity in the United States.
The Senate process is a multi-step affair that can take a few days or more to advance legislation past the 60-vote threshold required in that chamber. At this point, it is hardly guaranteed that the crypto bill will garner even a majority, as some Republican senators have also raised concerns about the treatment of stablecoin yield and the language of the government ethics provision.
