Senate CLARITY Act Markup Delayed Amid Looming U.S. Government Shutdown

The crypto market structure bill, also commonly referred to as the CLARITY Act, has experienced a setback, with the markup phase unlikely to occur this month. This comes amid a looming U.S. government shutdown.

CLARITY Act Markup Likely Delayed Till October

In an X post, Journalist Eleanor Terrett revealed that the September 30 market structure markup that Senate Banking Republicans were targeting is now effectively off the table, citing Consensus and Capitol Hill sources.

She further revealed that Democrats have yet to provide feedback on the legislation, as they want an agreement between both sides before proceeding with negotiating the bill’s details. This follows a press release from Senate Democrats last week in which they called for “true collaboration” on the CLARITY Act.

Meanwhile, the sources also informed Terrett that the looming government shutdown would make it almost impossible to hold a markup on the 30th, which is also the deadline before a potential shutdown. Notably, the Senate is out for a week and would not return until September 29, during which last-ditch attempts to prevent a shutdown would be the focus.

In line with this, the journalist stated that a possible new target date is the week of October 20, although this is still subject to change. A positive is that the Senate Agriculture Committee is also eyeing October to markup their bill, which focuses on the CFTC’s regulatory oversight of the crypto industry. As such, Terrett predicts that the delay should not affect the possibility of the CLARITY Act getting to the Senate floor by the end of the year.

Amid this potential delay, it is worth noting that the U.S. House’s version of the crypto market structure bill is also on the table, and it remains to be seen whether the Senate will incorporate it into its proposed version.

A Government Shutdown Is Likely

Polymarket data shows that there is currently a 65% chance of a government shutdown by October 1. This has become more likely as U.S. President Donald Trump canceled his meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

However, despite the potential delay in the CLARITY Act markup, partly due to the looming government shutdown, policy analyst Nathan Dean suggested that the crypto community should not worry much about this delay.

He further remarked that the Senate Banking Committee has always had an aggressive timeline, and aligning it with Senate Ag and post-shutdown drama makes the bill more realistic for passage in the first half of next year. However, White House crypto adviser said that he expects the bill to pass by the end of the year.