House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill is again pressing for Congress to pass a permanent U.S. crypto market law, arguing that recent steps by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission do not amount to the durable framework the industry needs.
In an Oct. 7 interview carried by Fox Business, the Arkansas Republican said both agencies had made progress on digital-asset policy but their actions still “fell short” of what legislation could provide. Hill said he wants lawmakers to use the post-election lame duck session to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, or CLARITY, even as the Senate has only 22 scheduled session days between November’s elections and the start of the next Congress in January.
Hill revives call for a statutory framework
Hill framed the issue as one of permanence. In his view, agency rulemaking under existing authority cannot replace a law passed by Congress, particularly for companies making long-term decisions. He said a lasting legal framework is needed to secure the U.S. position in digital assets and blockchain technology.
His preferred timeline is the lame duck session, when lawmakers return after the November midterm elections but before the new Congress is seated. Hill noted that senators entering that period will know whether they are returning to Washington or leaving office in January, a political reality that could shape any final negotiations.
CLARITY remains stuck after September Senate setback
The legislation is stalled after the Senate failed in September to open debate on the bill. On Sept. 15, a procedural motion drew 49 votes in favor and 50 against, with one senator absent. Because the motion required 60 votes, supporters fell 11 short.
That vote did not amount to final passage or rejection of the bill itself. The September coverage cited in the report said Republican Sen. Thom Tillis switched his vote to no and filed a motion to reconsider, preserving a path for another attempt.
The House had already passed its version of H.R. 3633 in July 2025 by a 294-134 vote, including support from 78 Democrats. If the Senate were to approve a different version, the two chambers would still need to reconcile their texts before any measure could be sent to the president.
Disputes center on ethics and other unresolved terms
Negotiators from the two parties have offered conflicting accounts of why the bill has not advanced. After the September vote, Democratic participants said ethics protections remained unresolved. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks said she wanted restrictions that would apply to the current president, future presidents and members of Congress, while still backing digital-asset legislation in principle.
Republican sponsors said their Sept. 14 draft had already incorporated 126 substantive Democratic requests. Their account pointed to revisions involving ethics provisions, state attorney general enforcement, and Treasury authority related to stablecoin-linked deposit flight.
Former Democratic congressman Tim Ryan gave a similar assessment in comments published Sept. 24, saying a lame duck deal was still possible if both sides returned to talks and made concessions. He identified ethics, consumer protection, illicit finance and stablecoin rewards as the main unresolved issues.
Agency action continues, but within existing limits
Hill’s comments came after SEC Chair Paul Atkins and CFTC Chair Michael Selig said their agencies would move ahead with crypto regulation at President Donald Trump’s direction. But the report draws a distinction between those regulatory efforts and the broader market structure that CLARITY would establish in statute.
The CFTC already oversees derivatives markets, including crypto futures, options and swaps, and can police fraud and manipulation in spot commodity transactions. What it does not currently have is the same routine supervisory authority over spot crypto exchanges that it has over registered derivatives venues.
Under the proposed CLARITY framework, qualifying digital commodities would generally be overseen by the CFTC, while securities-related activity would stay with the SEC. The bill would also create registration requirements for certain digital commodity exchanges and other market participants. A Sept. 24 review cited in the report also noted separate SEC and CFTC rulemaking steps, including an SEC interpretation issued in March, an August proposal for crypto offering exemptions, an SEC conditional exemption for tokenized-stock trading on Sept. 17, and a CFTC measure that entered White House review the same day.
Next step depends on post-election negotiations
The immediate question is whether lawmakers can bridge the remaining policy disputes during the 22-day Senate window after the election. Hill is publicly betting that Congress still has time to do so, but only if it can translate bipartisan support for crypto legislation into an agreement on final terms.
The report also notes that both regulators are operating with reduced leadership. As of Oct. 7, there were seven commissioner vacancies across the SEC and CFTC. Hester Peirce had resigned from the SEC the previous week, leaving Atkins and Mark Uyeda as its remaining members, while Selig was identified as both chair and sole commissioner at the CFTC.
Source: crypto.news