Trump linked the fate of the CLARITY bill to the fate of the late Senator Lindsay Graham and pushed the Senate to vote as soon as possible. Graham's death added an emotional dimension to the bill, which had been pending in the Senate for months after its adoption.
Currently, the Republican Party in the Senate holds 53 seats, but 60 votes are still required to pass the bill. It is expected that at least two Republicans will vote against it, so that at least seven Democrats will be needed. So far, only two Democrat senators have publicly supported the bill, leaving little time for legislators.
The Senate must vote before 7 August in order to complete it before the National Assembly is adjourned. Senator Cynthia Loomis warned that a missed moment might mean that meaningful encryption legislation would be delayed until 2030.
The Bill treats bitcoin and the Taifeng as commodities under the supervision of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and permanently deprives the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) of its ability to reclassify them as securities. The House Committee on Financial Services has scheduled a hearing on the bill to be held in New York on 17 July, with a view to enhancing support before the Senate vote.
In addition, five Democrat senators called for a committee hearing on the personal encrypted currency holdings of Trump, noting that its 2025 financial disclosure revealed approximately $1.4 billion in encryption-related assets. Senator Kirsten Gilland proposed a ban on the possession of licorice by public officials, which was seen by some as a possible way of bridging party differences by the deadline.