Pass the Clarity Act
Reopening a settled provision four weeks before a vote would sink the bill, argues Summer Mersinger, CEO of the Blockchain Association.
In a recent op-ed, American Bankers Association CEO Rob Nichols says America's banks want to strengthen the Clarity Act, not kill it. I'll take him at his word, but time is short, so let's look at the calendar.
On September 15, less than four weeks from now, the Senate will vote on whether to debate this bill. That vote needs the OK from 60 senators. Afterward, the Senate has less than three working weeks before the fall spending fight dominates the Senate calendar and the legislative window effectively closes ahead of the midterms. That’s a very tight window to get this bill over the line. With that in mind, the big banks are introducing a demand to reopen a provision that had been negotiated over many months, with their representatives at the table the entire time. Reopening it now would not improve the bill. It would restart a negotiation nobody has time to finish. We feel that this “discussion” is simply a delay to kill the legislation.
Summer Mersinger is CEO of the Blockchain Association and a former commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Mr. Nichols presents two of ABA’s proposed changes as modest: replace the bill’s existing standard with “substantially similar” and strike the word “solely.” Neither change is modest.
