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Floor Speech
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Ms. LUMMIS. I thank the Senator from Alaska for visiting about a local legislator. They are tremendously important to all of us. Digital Asset Market Clarity Act
Madam President, yesterday I addressed this Chamber because we are wasting time we do not have to get the digital asset market structure bill passed, the bill called the Clarity Act. It is a strong bipartisan path forward that we have, and it is the best way for us to give digital assets, especially in this country, the certainty they need and ensure the United States leads on digital asset innovation.
The way to do it is through bipartisan support of this bill. And, again, this is a very good bill, a bill created out of necessity because the status quo does not work.
My friend Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and I released the Lummis- Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act together in 2022 to give the U.S. industry the regulatory clarity it needs to thrive on U.S. soil, to give consumers the confidence they need to participate in our digital economy, and give law enforcement the tools they need to crack down on illicit finance and hold bad actors accountable.
That 168-page bill would become the foundation for the Clarity Act. A year later, in 2023, we added 100 pages with stronger consumer protection provisions. Yet, we got feedback from colleagues that they wanted more. So, again, we listened.
Today, this bill that was under 300 pages is more than 600 pages. That is hundreds of pages built over 11 months of daily bipartisan negotiations in windowless rooms where colleagues from both parties shared their priorities, and we worked diligently to incorporate them.
Title I alone has 33 separate Democrat-driven edits. We added 23 new sections on illicit finance at Democrats' request. Democrats secured another 30 wins in the CFTC portion of the bill. Plus, we created the three entirely new titles they wanted. And that is all before we even get to ethics, where the President bent over backwards to get my Democrat colleagues to a ``yes.''
We have 100 clear examples of compromise, and yet for some this still isn't enough. Holding out for a perfect bill stopped being principled months ago. It has become an excuse not to legislate at all, and the people who pay for that excuse aren't in this room. They are the people we are about to talk about: the digital asset industry and the consumers who wish to participate with confidence in this digital economy, not to mention the future generations who will miss out because too many in this Chamber said: Not yet. I am not ready. I have got an election in November. Don't want to do it.
The status quo in this industry doesn't work. It is not working for the digital asset industry or law enforcement or consumers.
We have already watched exchanges collapse with no functioning bankruptcy framework built for this asset class. And we have already watched ordinary people stand in line for years waiting on bankruptcy courts to claw back pennies on the dollar of what they lost.
When Celsius and Voyager went bankrupt, customer deposits didn't stay customer deposits. They became assets in a bankruptcy pool, fought over by creditors who had never even heard of the people who actually owned those assets. More than 4 million Americans lost access to their own money in 2022 because we don't have the protections the Clarity Act puts in place, and thousands of them are still sorting through bankruptcy claims today.
That is what no regulation looks like. That is not a hypothetical or a talking point. That is real people suffering real losses, real years spent in bankruptcy court fighting for money that should never have been up for grabs in the first place.
Customers will, once again, be put in a nasty fight with Wall Street law firms that they have no hope to win.
If you believe in consumer protection, we must pass this bill to give consumers the protection in bankruptcy they deserve.
Not passing this bill means everyone in this Chamber will have to deservedly hang their heads the next time a crypto exchange collapses-- because there will be a next time, absent regulation. No one in this Chamber gets to act surprised by that.
It already happened. And if we don't get our acts together, it is going to happen again to our constituents under the exact same broken rules while we all sit here debating whether a bill with over 100 Democratic wins is still somehow not good enough.
Another FTX is not a hypothetical we are guarding against; it is a guaranteed outcome of leaving this industry with no custody rules, no consumer protections, and no consequences when a platform fails people.
And, by the way, foreign adversaries aren't just waiting around for us to finish deliberating. They are moving money through the exact gaps this bill closes--right now, today--while we hold out for something more perfect than what is already sitting on the table.
To those who have already said they are a ``no'' vote, let me be clear: A ``no'' vote isn't a statement against President Trump because he has already given you what you asked for. It is a vote to keep American consumers inside a system we already know to be flawed on a theory that the fix wasn't good enough. It is a vote to drive American innovation, American jobs, and American oversight of this jurisdiction to Singapore or the UAE or whichever jurisdiction is happy to take what we are too foolish to accept.
That is the actual choice that faces us, not Republicans versus Democrats. It is fixed or flawed. It is America leading or America sidelined.
We have served up this win for you and set it in front of you--over 100 wins in the base bill, an ethics agreement no other President in American history has volunteered. And by someone who didn't even have to give an inch but did it because he believes that much in American innovation and what this asset class can bring for generations is worth protecting.
Take it. Take it. Stop finding reasons not to.
I know that if we fail here, this doesn't come back next year or the year after that. The realistic next change at market structure legislation is likely 2030, at the earliest. In the meantime, we will lose businesses to other countries. We lose investment and jobs and tax revenue to jurisdictions moving faster than we are. We inhibit law enforcement's ability to hold bad actors accountable, and we lose our seat at the table to shape how this industry grows. At the exact same moment, we have a chance to guide it responsibly.
We didn't get here by ceding the internet to Europe, and we cannot afford to cede digital assets the same way, especially now that we have already done the hard work--5\1/2\ years--putting this bill together.
The window to lead right now is wide open. The end zone is inches away. But that window will not stay open for a body that continues to respond to opportunity with: Not yet. I have got an election. I don't want to take a stand.
Opportunity waits for no one.
Let's cinch up. Let's punch the ball into the end zone and pass the CLARITY Act now.
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