Daily News 19

Tag: Cloture vote

  • Trump Agrees to Revised Clarity Act Ethics Provision

    Trump Agrees to Revised Clarity Act Ethics Provision

    Legislation addressing digital asset market clarity and government ethics advanced toward a critical procedural vote this week, setting the stage for a complex legislative path that extends into the post-election session.

    Cloture Vote Determines Immediate Future

    The bill’s survival hinges on a cloture vote scheduled for this week. If successful, the measure will proceed through additional procedural steps, including a final passage vote in the Senate. The House of Representatives must also take up the legislation when it reconvenes after the November election recess.

    Ethics Provisions Strengthened in Revised Draft

    The updated legislation introduces significant changes to ethics enforcement for senior government officials. The provision now includes civil penalties for issuers and, marking a departure from the previous draft, grants state attorneys general the authority to file lawsuits to enforce compliance. Additionally, lawmakers removed a sunset clause that would have limited the enforcement timeframe.

    Divestiture and Blind Trust Requirements Detailed

    The revised text establishes strict timelines for covered individuals—defined as senior government officials subject to the ethics rules—who hold significant financial interests in digital assets. According to the bill:

    “Not later than the effective date of division C of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act under section 30104 of that division, a covered individual who maintains a significant financial interest shall — A$0.08276 divest the significant financial interest; or B$0.2173 place the significant financial interest in a qualified blind trust,” the revised text said.

    Disclosure and Exchange Restrictions

    Following divestiture or placement in a blind trust, the covered individual has three days to notify the relevant ethics office. That office then has an additional three days to publicly announce the action, which will be treated as a sale for regulatory purposes. The legislation also prohibits cryptocurrency exchanges from listing any digital assets issued by a covered individual.

  • Republicans Introduce New Version of Key Crypto Bill for BTC, XRP, ETH

    Republicans Introduce New Version of Key Crypto Bill for BTC, XRP, ETH

    Senate Republicans have circulated a revised 630-page version of the CLARITY Act mere days before a pivotal procedural vote that could shape the regulatory future of the broader cryptocurrency market, including major assets such as Bitcoin, XRP, and Ethereum.

    Partisan Dynamics Remain Unresolved

    Journalist Brendan Pedersen reported Thursday that the latest legislative text remains a Republican proposal rather than a bipartisan agreement. Democrats who have previously expressed interest in crypto legislation remain skeptical, according to Pedersen. A Democratic aide characterized the unresolved ethics dispute as the “biggest stumbling block by far.”

    “This latest proposal does nothing to resolve those concerns,” the aide said.

    Sept. 15 Cloture Vote Looms as Critical Test

    The Senate’s cloture motion on the motion to proceed to the CLARITY Act is scheduled to ripen on Sept. 15 at 2:15 p.m. ET. This procedural vote determines whether debate on the legislation can advance; it is not a final vote on passage. With the current draft still lacking bipartisan support, Republicans will need to persuade enough Democrats to allow the legislation to move forward.

    Key Revisions in the Updated Draft

    The updated legislation introduces several notable changes to the regulatory framework:

    Decentralization Definitions Refined

    The revised draft draws a clearer distinction between genuinely decentralized protocols and what it terms “non-decentralized finance trading protocols.” The text specifies that merely participating in a decentralized governance mechanism or an incident-response security council does not automatically constitute control.

    Developer Protections Retained

    The bill maintains significant protections for software developers, a provision viewed as critical for innovation in the digital asset space.

    Focus on Digital-Commodity Markets

    The revised DeFi language explicitly focuses parts of the regulatory regime on digital-commodity cash and spot markets, narrowing the scope of certain oversight mechanisms.

    Credit Union Provisions Strengthened

    Another notable revision strengthens language concerning credit unions. Regulators, including the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), would retain their full supervisory and enforcement powers. The bill also makes technical changes to the GENIUS Act intended to place credit-union accounts on more equal footing with bank deposits when dealing with tokenized financial products.

    Political Hurdle Outweighs Technical Changes

    While the updated draft modifies several regulatory mechanics of the CLARITY Act, it does not resolve the core political dispute most likely to determine whether the legislation can advance. The Sept. 15 cloture vote represents the next major test, and the outcome will signal whether a path forward exists for comprehensive crypto market structure legislation in the current Congress.