- Andrew Cuomo says election-year politics, not policy disagreements, led to the CLARITY Act’s failure.
- Partisan disputes, including ethics provisions tied to Trump’s crypto ties, blocked consensus.
- A procedural path keeps the bill alive, but a revival before the current Congress ends remains unlikely.
Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo believes the CLARITY Act did not fail because of an unresolvable policy disagreement. Instead, he thinks the bill did not pass Senate voting because of election-year politics and partisan gamesmanship.
How Politics Derailed the CLARITY Act
In a Bloomberg interview, Cuomo, one of the most prominent corporate advocates pushing for the passage of the legislation, highlighted the reasons why politics derailed the CLARITY Act. Cuomo noted that the vote’s timing, just weeks ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections, heightened political sensitivities. He believes lawmakers were more concerned with appealing to voters rather than acting responsibly to protect the economy.
The former governor also noted that the SEC and CFTC had agreed on the bill’s core market-structure elements, particularly how they would split oversight, signaling their willingness to proceed. However, a proxy war over strict ethics provisions targeting President Donald Trump and his family’s crypto ventures interfered. Cuomo was frustrated that despite the bill incorporating 126 substantive changes requested by Democrats, partisan friction over the wording could not be bridged before the clock ran out.
Implications of the Current Situation
Focusing on potential implications, Cuomo warned that by letting political battles kill the legislation, Congress is forcing the industry to rely on temporary agency rules. According to him, regulatory frameworks such as the SEC’s recent stock tokenization exemption can be dismantled whenever political control flips in Washington. Nonetheless, he hopes that once the midterms conclude, a lame-duck Congress will have the political will to look past partisan biases and pass the CLARITY Act.
The CLARITY Act failed the U.S. Senate procedural cloture vote on September 15. However, Republican Senator from North Carolina, Thom Tillis, filed a strategic motion to reconsider the bill as a procedural step to keep it in play. That motion opens the bill for a rerun without changing the text.
Related: What Happens Next to the CLARITY Act After Senate Setback?
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