CLARITY Act Faces August Cliff, Dusty Johnson Warns — Failure Could Hand Crypto To Warren, Waters

• Dusty Johnson stated that the House could consider a Senate-passed bill within two weeks but advised the industry not to rely on the lame-duck session afterward.
• He highlighted the DeFi provisions as a main obstacle between the House and Senate, expressing concern over the Senate's prescriptive regulatory language.
• He drew a parallel to the 1996 Telecommunications Act, suggesting that lighter regulations could benefit crypto.

Outgoing House Agriculture Subcommittee Chairman Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) warned on Wednesday that the window for passing the CLARITY Act is closing and said failure to move the bill before the August recess could shelve crypto market structure legislation "for far too long."

Speaking on the Crypto in America podcast, the South Dakota Republican said the House could take up a Senate-passed bill within roughly two weeks if delivered, but urged the industry not to count on the lame-duck session. Of about five major legislative packages expected to compete for floor time after the November election, Johnson said "maybe one" was likely to actually clear.

The DeFi provisions remain the principal sticking point between the chambers. Johnson said he was "a little nervous" about the Senate draft's more prescriptive language and indicated the chamber "will need to come the House way a little bit" for a final bill to pass. He compared the regulatory approach to the 1996 Telecommunications Act, arguing that lighter-touch rules for advanced services helped unlock the modern internet.

CFTC, Fee-Funding, CBDC Ban

Johnson also flagged the political stakes of missing the window. If Republicans lose the House and Democrats take the Senate in the November midterms, jurisdiction over crypto legislation would shift to Representative Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). He added that all current finalists for the House Agriculture Committee chairmanship had voted against CLARITY.

He pushed back on recent comments from Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan, who argued in a recent memo that crypto could survive the CLARITY Act failing, saying another "Gary Gensler villain" at a regulatory agency was inevitable without a statute in place.

On other policy threads, Johnson backed the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) retaining spot market authority over crypto, calling it the "Goldilocks" outcome. He raised concerns about Senate language shifting the agency to fee-funding but said a compromise was possible if growth limits were attached. The anti-CBDC bill has been folded into the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) reauthorization package with a 2029 sunset clause.

Johnson confirmed he is leaving politics after losing a gubernatorial run, saying jokingly that "the voters got sick of me," and that he now needs "to figure out what to do next" — removing one of the industry's most active Republican advocates from Congress at year-end.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story stated that Rep. Johnson was leaving politics for health reasons. Johnson's comments were made in jest; he has not cited any health issues as a factor in his decision. The story has been updated to reflect his full remarks.

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