Senate tees up CLARITY Act cloture vote for September 15

The Senate is scheduled to vote at about 2:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday, 15 September 2026, on cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025. The bill on Congress.gov would set a federal market-structure frame that splits work between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

This is a pending Senate procedural vote. It is not final passage, not a signed law, and not an SEC rule. Cloture needs 60 votes, and success would open floor debate and amendments without enacting the bill.

Republicans hold 53 Senate seats, so Democratic or independent support is required if the GOP caucus stays mostly united. Unchained reported that Sen. Mike Rounds said the bill "does not look good right now," and that Sen. Thom Tillis said it will fail if the White House will not bridge the ethics gap. Crypto in America said at least two Republicans were expected to oppose the first procedural vote, which would raise the Democratic need. That is their arithmetic, not a locked whip count.

The live fight is ethics. Democrats, and some Republicans including Tillis in bipartisan talks with Sen. Ruben Gallego, want stronger limits on officials and families issuing, sponsoring, or profiting from digital assets. The White House-backed language bars officials, employees, and spouses from issuing or sponsoring digital assets, assigns Department of Justice enforcement, does not extend the issuance ban to children of officials, and ceases to have force after noon on 20 January 2029.

Crypto in America said a 10 September revised Republican draft added DeFi and CFTC registration language Democrats had asked for, plus credit-union crypto authority, but left that contested ethics section largely unchanged. Blockonomi reported President Donald Trump met advisers on 11 September with no disclosed rewrite.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has urged the Senate to advance the bill while talks continue. Democratic support for cloture was not locked in mid-September reporting. The vote outcome and any last-minute ethics rewrite were still unresolved ahead of the scheduled cloture.

Related market-structure tape includes Nasdaq's $100 million Kraken parent stake, Visa's $20 billion stablecoin settlement run rate, ESMA's look at Polymarket and Kalshi, and Block's Builders Bank OCC charter.

If you trade digital-asset names or write compliance notes on market structure, mark Tuesday 15 September at 2:15 p.m. ET as a 60-vote cloture test that opens debate, not as a law. Treat the ethics issuance ban as drafted to expire at noon on 20 January 2029 and to skip children of officials until the text actually changes.