Senate Republicans released a revised 635-page version of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act on September 14, presenting it as their final compromise ahead of a key procedural vote. The package incorporates 126 substantive changes requested by Democratic negotiators, including revisions covering government ethics, stablecoin rewards, software developers and consumer protections.
According to a Reuters report on the revised CLARITY Act, Sens. Cynthia Lummis, John Boozman and Tim Scott said the final text includes new ethics provisions agreed to by President Donald Trump. The September 15 vote is a procedural cloture vote intended to determine whether the Senate can move forward with consideration of the bill, rather than a vote on final passage.
Ethics and Stablecoin Rules Change
The revised ethics framework incorporates elements of a proposal developed by Sens. Thom Tillis and Ruben Gallego. Covered officials, including federally elected officials, judges and their spouses, would face restrictions involving significant digital-asset interests, while state attorneys general would gain an enforcement role. The changes are intended to strengthen conflict-of-interest controls that had remained one of the principal obstacles in negotiations.
The draft also introduces a mechanism addressing concerns that stablecoin rewards could accelerate deposit withdrawals from community banks. If the Treasury Secretary determines that payment stablecoins are causing substantial deposit flight, Treasury could impose restrictions on reward programs. That special authority would expire 18 months after enactment rather than automatically prohibiting stablecoin rewards for an 18-month period.
Developer protections were also modified through the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act provisions. The revised language retains protections intended to prevent qualifying developers, miners and validators from automatically being treated as money transmitters or financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act. References extending the protections into Section 1960 of the federal criminal code were removed, narrowing the scope of the safe harbor.
Senate Vote Opens the Next Procedural Stage
The Senate Banking Committee previously advanced the legislation by a 15-9 vote on May 14. The next hurdle is obtaining the 60 votes generally required to invoke cloture, meaning Republican sponsors need support beyond their 53-seat conference if all senators participate.
The final proposal also adds safeguards around affiliate trading, preserves the applicability of state consumer-protection laws and clarifies protections for software developers. Those changes broaden the compromise beyond the high-profile debates over stablecoins and government ethics and into the structure of digital-asset market oversight itself.
Even if cloture succeeds on September 15, the legislation would still face debate, possible amendments and a subsequent final-passage vote. Because the Senate text differs from the House version of H.R. 3633, further congressional action would also be necessary before the legislation could reach the president. The immediate question is therefore whether senators will allow the revised CLARITY Act to advance to full floor consideration, not whether it becomes law this week.
