‘CLARITY Act Is Dead’ in Washington, Ex Federal Prosecutor Says

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Eight days before the Senate’s Sept. 15 cloture vote, former federal prosecutor Mariotti says the message from lawmakers and staff in Washington is that the CLARITY Act is dead.

Key Takeaways

Renato Mariotti has said that members of Congress and staff told him “Clarity is dead” this week in D.C.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis posted once again that a miss this window pushes the market-structure law to 2030.
Polymarket has put a passage for Clarity between 13% to 18%; the Sept. 15 cloture motion needs seven Democrats for 60 votes.

What Mariotti Heard

Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, spent the week in Washington and subsequently posted his thoughts on his sojourn, claiming that members of Congress and their staff told him unequivocally that:

CLARITY is dead. Congress is entering a post-CLARITY era.

He paired the bill’s stall with the Ninth Circuit’s ruling against prediction markets like Kalshi and New Jersey’s push to take that fight to the Supreme Court. The verdict was starker than anything the industry’s own advocates have said in public, with Bitwise’s Matt Hougan calling the bill “walking dead” in August.

What Lummis Is Counting

Lummis answered subsequently, with the Wyoming Republican taking to X to post:

If the Clarity Act doesn’t pass this Congress, the next real opportunity to bring market structure legislation back up is 2030. That’s years of jobs, investment, and tax revenue we can avoid squandering if we finish this now.

The 2030 date is not new, as she has brought up the date many times over the past half a year. What is, however, new is the calendar. House leaders cut eight voting days from September, and the chamber leaves Washington on Sept. 17, two days after the Senate vote, not returning until after the Nov. 3 midterms.

If the Senate passes an amended bill, the House has 48 hours to act on it. Anything after that waits for a new Congress, then a presidential cycle.

The negotiating room emptied a month ago. Sen. Bernie Moreno declared the talks “officially ended” on Aug. 8 and said there was “absolutely nothing to iron out.” The White House’s Patrick Witt set the deadline three days later, adding:

If they can’t get there by September 15, they never will.

Markets React

Polymarket’s contract on the CLARITY Act becoming law in 2026 has traded between 13% and 18% over the past week, down from 82% in February, on more than $11.5 million of volume. Kalshi’s market on whether more than 58 senators vote yes sits at 19%. Ian Katz of Capital Alpha Partners cut his enactment estimate from about 40% to 25% at the end of August, and Galaxy Research has it at 10%.

'CLARITY Act Is Dead' in Washington, Ex Federal Prosecutor Says

Traders are not doubting that a vote happens (given Kalshi priced a Senate vote before Oct. 1 at 91%), they are doubting that anything follows it.

Lastly, the vote on Sept. 15 is a cloture motion on the motion to proceed. It needs 60 votes. Republicans hold 53 seats, and leadership has said it expects all of them, though Sens. Josh Hawley and Jerry Moran have raised community-banking objections. That means seven Democrats must cross, the same seven who declined before the August recess.

Winning it does not pass the bill, but rather lets the Senate begin debating a package that still has three open fights, namely: