The two Democrats who had kept the CLARITY Act alive in committee just turned against it. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, the only Democrats to vote the bill out of the Senate Banking Committee on May 14, signed a joint statement Tuesday afternoon opposing the current draft text. That changes the math in the Senate dramatically.

Five other senators joined them: Cory Booker of New Jersey, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Mark Warner of Virginia, and Raphael Warnock of Georgia. Together they told Republicans the bill falls short on ethics for elected officials, consumer protection, illicit finance, conflicts of interest, and market integrity.

How the numbers shifted

The Banking Committee advanced the CLARITY Act 15-9 back in May. Republicans needed Gallego and Alsobrooks to get there. Now, without those two, Republicans would have to pull eight Democratic votes from elsewhere to hit the 60-vote threshold needed for cloture. Senators Chris Murphy, Chris Van Hollen, and Jeff Merkley were already leading the ethics-focused opposition before Tuesday, making that count hard. It just got harder.

Former CFTC chief Chris Giancarlo has publicly put the odds of passage below 50%. The August recess is the looming deadline, and the clock is short.

Republicans released a revised draft the same day the statement dropped. It includes an ethics provision that sunsets in 2029, the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, updated stablecoin language, and new law enforcement measures. Democrats say that ethics sunset is exactly the problem: a temporary fix dressed up as a real safeguard.

The ethics fight is not new. Democrats raised nearly identical concerns a year ago during Senate negotiations on the GENIUS Act stablecoin bill. Senator Lummis is pushing colleagues to accept the revised language and move forward, but the joint statement published Tuesday shows the pro-crypto bloc in the Democratic caucus has formally shifted into public opposition, at least on the current text. Republicans have not announced changes beyond what was released Tuesday.

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