U.S. Senator Lummis says Democrats won't quit asking for more on crypto Clarity Act

As the U.S. Senate is poised to vote Tuesday on whether to embrace or abandon the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, one of the leading Republican negotiators, Senator Cynthia Lummis, said that Democrats are still asking for more changes even after Republicans circulated what they said was a final compromise proposal over the weekend.

"The Democrats want more," she said at a Washington event on Monday. "They always want more. If we waited another month, they would want more."

"There's no end to it," the Wyoming Republican lamented.

In an appearance at a Washington summit hosted by the Solana Policy Institute, Lummis recounted the difficulty of giving a major personal concession on the legal protections for decentralized finance (DeFi) developers in this last draft.

Though praising her Democrat partner, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Lummis said that the negotiation has seen a series of major concessions to Democrats, which she tallied at 114 points of individual policy in the bill. A major one was the section that became the political pivot point of the Clarity Act: its section that would curtail government officials' ability to maintain personal business connections with the industry — targeted mainly as President Donald Trump.

She said she was surprised when he relented to a second pass at the ethics constraints on himself and other officials, which was reflected in this week's draft.

"The Democrats wanted more, and much to my surprise, the president has agreed to give more," she said.

Lummis didn't seem to know whether the Tuesday vote would win at least 60 yes votes it needs to advance in the Senate. The industry's event on Monday was abuzz with lobbyists speculating on the odds of passage for Clarity. Even the most optimistic ones were framing the possibilities as narrow.

As word spread that Democrat lawmakers had gathered to discuss the latest version of the bill, the crowd waited eagerly to hear any hints from the outcome. Lummis said she immediately asked her staff when she landed in Washington after traveling from her Wyoming ranch, and she was informed that the Democrats were asking for further revisions.

"This is as good as it's going to get," she said, saying the Democrats should embrace the legislation. "My tank is empty."