CLARITY Act Faces White House Blitz As Treasury and SEC Press Senate This Week

TLDR

• Treasury, SEC, CFTC and White House officials pressed the Senate on CLARITY this week.
• House lawmakers passed the CLARITY Act in July 2025 by a 294-134 vote.
• White House economists said a stablecoin yield ban would shift only 0.02% of lending.
• FinCEN and OFAC proposed new rules for stablecoin issuers on April 8.
• SEC and CFTC said they are ready to apply the CLARITY Act once Congress acts.

The White House increased pressure on the Senate this week to move the CLARITY Act. Treasury, the SEC, the CFTC, and White House economists joined the effort. Their message was direct. They said the bill is ready and Senate action should not wait.

The push follows months of delay in the Senate Banking Committee. The House passed the bill in July 2025 with a 294-134 vote. Since then, lobbying fights have slowed progress, mainly over yield-bearing stablecoins. The administration is now trying to remove those objections before the 2026 midterm cycle tightens the schedule.

White House and Treasury increase pressure

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged the Senate Banking Committee to hold a markup. In a post on X, he said, “Congress has spent the better part of half a decade trying to pass a framework to onshore the future of finance.” His statement added to a wider push from the administration.

The White House Council of Economic Advisers also released a report on stablecoin yields. It said a ban on yield would raise bank lending by only $2.1 billion. That equals about 0.02% of the $12 trillion US lending market. The report also said consumers would lose about $800 million a year in returns.

Those figures challenge the main case made by banking groups. Banks have said stablecoin yields could pull deposits away from lenders. The White House report said that effect would be limited. That leaves less room for lawmakers to cite banking risk as a reason for delay.

SEC and CFTC say they are ready

The SEC and CFTC used the same week to show they are prepared. Both agencies said they can apply the CLARITY Act once Congress passes it. That response targets concerns that regulators may not be ready for the bill’s new structure.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins referred to the agency’s “Project Crypto” plan. He said, “Project Crypto is designed so once Congress acts, the SEC and CFTC are ready to implement the CLARITY Act.” CFTC Chair Mike Selig made a similar statement.

The bill would create a path for some digital assets to move between regulators. Assets could shift from SEC oversight to CFTC oversight after meeting decentralization standards. That framework is one of the bill’s central parts.

New stablecoin rules add more urgency

Treasury added more pressure on April 8. FinCEN and OFAC proposed new rules for stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act, which became law in July 2025. The proposal would treat US stablecoin issuers as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act.

Issuers would need anti-money-laundering and sanctions programs. They would also need tools to block, freeze, and reject unlawful transactions. Bessent said, “This proposal will protect the US financial system from national security threats without hindering American companies’ ability to forge ahead in the payment stablecoin ecosystem.”

The new rules address stablecoins, but they do not settle wider crypto market structure. Without the CLARITY Act, decentralized exchanges and tokenized assets remain in a gray area. That is why the administration is pressing the Senate to act this week.

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