[DigitalToday reporter Jinju Hong] U.S. Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis (신시아 루미스) again warned that if the Clarity Act, a cryptocurrency market structure bill, is not handled in the current session, the next practical legislative opportunity could be pushed back until 2030.

On Sept. 7 (local time), blockchain media outlet CoinPost reported that Lummis wrote on X that “if the Clarity Act does not pass in this session, the next real opportunity will be 2030.”

Lummis chairs the digital assets subcommittee and is among those most actively pushing for passage of the Clarity Act in the Senate. Her remarks came about a week before a procedural vote that will determine the bill’s path in the Senate. She argued that failure to wrap up the bill in this session could lead to a prolonged loss of opportunity in jobs, investment and tax revenue.

The Clarity Act is a market structure bill that organizes the regulatory status of cryptocurrencies and clarifies the jurisdictions of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The bill passed the House of Representatives in July 2025, and the Senate Banking Committee also approved it in May this year by 15 votes to 9.

However, the Senate vote scheduled for Sept. 15 is not a stage that determines final passage of the bill itself. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (존 튠) on Aug. 8 filed for cloture on a motion to proceed to floor consideration, and the Senate is set to vote on it on the 15th, the day after it returns from its summer recess. The procedural step must pass for the bill to move into full deliberations.

The key is the vote count. Ending debate requires 60 votes, or three-fifths of sitting senators. Republican votes alone are not enough, making some Democratic support unavoidable. Given that Lummis also warned in May that “if we miss this session, next is 2030,” the latest message is read as a remark weighted toward persuading the Senate ahead of the Sept. 15 vote.

The Senate schedule is also cited as an unfavorable factor for moving the bill. The Senate goes into recess for most of October, and it still has budget legislation and the National Defense Authorization Act to consider. That leaves limited time to allocate to deliberations. In that situation, if this procedural vote is blocked, it could become harder to regain priority in later sessions.

The “2030” Lummis mentioned does not mean a legal deadline. Still, if legislation fails in the current session, it could be difficult to secure floor time around the November 2026 midterm elections, and large bills may be hard to push in the next Congress that includes the 2028 presidential election, an outlook suggests. With the need to rebuild bipartisan agreement from scratch also considered, some forecasts say a realistic relaunch could be pushed to after 2029.

As a result, the Sept. 15 vote is expected to be a turning point that will decide the pace of U.S. cryptocurrency market structure legislation, beyond being a simple procedural vote. Whether the Senate can clear the threshold for deliberations, and how much Democratic cooperation it can secure, is expected to directly affect the Clarity Act’s future timetable.