Seven Democratic senators said on Sept. 16 that they remain committed to passing the CLARITY Act after the Senate failed to advance the digital asset market structure bill the previous day, vowing that bipartisan negotiations will continue.

Their statement followed a cloture vote held Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 2:19 p.m., in which the motion received 49 votes in favor and 50 against, short of the three-fifths support — effectively 60 votes — the Senate requires to advance H.R. 3633. Cloture is the Senate's mechanism for ending debate on a bill so the chamber can move toward final passage.

Democrats Reaffirm Commitment After Failed Vote

Kirsten Gillibrand, Angela Alsobrooks, Cory Booker, Catherine Cortez Masto, Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner and Raphael Warnock signed the statement. The senators said Democrats had spent two years working on crypto legislation, citing consumer protection, penalties for bad actors and regulatory certainty among their goals. They also called for ethics provisions covering elected officials.

Notably, all seven senators voted against the Sept. 15 procedural motion. Their statement nonetheless described the vote as a setback rather than the end, saying they remain committed to bipartisan work on the legislation.

Senate Vote Leaves Bill Short of Three-Fifths Threshold

The failed motion prevented the chamber from advancing H.R.3633, which would establish federal rules for digital commodities through the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). How oversight of digital assets is divided between those two agencies is the central question the bill is designed to resolve — the kind of regulatory certainty the senators cited as a goal of their two-year effort. The bill also includes provisions involving the Federal Reserve and central bank digital currency. Because the bill carries the H.R. designation, it originated in the House of Representatives and would need approval from both chambers of Congress before it could become law. With the motion defeated, no new federal framework takes effect for now.

Meanwhile, negotiations ahead of the vote had covered a range of issues, including ethics, consumer protections, illicit finance and market integrity.

SEC and CFTC Rulemaking Remains in Focus

Several analysts weighed in on the legislation's prospects. StoneX analysts said the bill is unlikely to pass during the current Congress. Bernstein analysts expect the SEC and CFTC to pursue specific rulemaking in areas including native crypto token classifications, DeFi protections and self-custody infrastructure. Bernstein also identified equity tokenization rules as another potential area of agency activity.

JPMorgan analysts said agency rules could establish guardrails while Congress considers legislation, though they noted such rules would be less durable than statutes.

Journalist Eleanor Terrett reported that the statement came amid early efforts to restart bipartisan talks, and three sources familiar with the discussions told her that lawmakers were gauging interest in returning to negotiations. Any renewed attempt to advance the bill would need to clear the same 60-vote threshold, making progress in those talks the next checkpoint for the legislation.