Tillis Aims to Hand White House the Clarity Act Ethics Bouquet by Friday 🌼

Senator Thom Tillis is working to deliver a bipartisan ethics package tied to the Clarity Act to the White House as early as Friday, the senator confirmed, after reaching a preliminary agreement with Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego. "That language is probably gonna get vetted with the admin Friday, maybe," Tillis said, leaving the timing loose enough to keep negotiators and observers in suspense.

The counteroffer is the product of weeks of back-and-forth between Tillis and Gallego on ethics provisions within the Clarity Act, with both offices now finalizing the underlying language. While senators have aligned on the broad approach, the specific text of the package has not been made public, and details are expected to emerge only after administration review later this week.

Alongside the ethics talks, Tillis said he wants to push a Clarity Act procedural vote in the Senate next week, a step that would set up the broader market-structure bill for floor consideration. The push comes as industry pressure on Capitol Hill intensifies, with Block, the financial services and bitcoin-focused company founded by Jack Dorsey, sending a letter urging Senate leaders to bring the Clarity Act to a floor vote.

The Senate's path forward remains tied to the unresolved ethics language, and any successful procedural vote would depend on the package clearing the White House review and being folded into the underlying text. Lawmakers in both parties have framed the ethics provisions as a prerequisite for moving the Clarity Act, which is intended to define the regulatory boundaries between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over digital assets.

Tillis's timeline of Friday for administration vetting, followed by a possible procedural vote the following week, puts the Clarity Act on one of the tightest schedules the bill has faced in the current Congress. Whether the package survives the review intact, or is amended, will determine how quickly the Senate can move to a final debate on the legislation.