The National Sheriffs’ Association has withdrawn its opposition to the CLARITY Act. The group moved to neutral, pulling back one of the more prominent law-enforcement objections to the crypto market-structure bill just weeks before an expected Senate vote.
NSA president Sheriff Troy Wellman and executive director Justin Smith laid out the shift in a September 4 letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. The organization, they wrote, would “step back and allow the legislative process to proceed.”
“Given the complexity of the legislation and the number of important details that remain under consideration, the NSA is changing its position on the Clarity Act to neutral,” the letter stated. It went on to say the group considered it the “most appropriate course” to let lawmakers “establish a clear, effective, and much needed regulatory framework.” Source
The reversal carries weight. The NSA had been among the most visible law-enforcement voices against the bill. It previously cautioned that the legislation would open “regulatory and anti-money laundering loopholes by exempting certain crypto developers and infrastructure providers from money transmitter rules,” as Bitcoin Magazine reported. A Cointelegraph account tied the opposition to amendments that would spare crypto mixers from many registration requirements. Those changes, the NSA argued, could “impair law enforcement’s ability to trace transactions and digital assets, and recover victims’ money.” Sheriff Jim Skinner was blunter in a July video: “The CLARITY Act protects the crypto industry, not the public.”
What changed in practical terms? A national police organization is no longer urging senators to kill the bill. That is a boost for backers who have spent most of 2026 trying to break a Senate stalemate.
The CLARITY Act, formally the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, cleared the House on a bipartisan vote in July 2025. It then moved to the Senate and largely stalled. Both the banking and agriculture committees advanced their own versions in 2026. Before the August recess, Thune filed a motion to force a cloture vote on September 15, the day senators return from state work periods.
A revised draft rolled out in July would bar government officials and their families from issuing or promoting crypto. The provision targets conflict-of-interest questions surrounding President Donald Trump and his family’s digital-asset ventures. In August, Trump appeared alongside SEC Chair Paul Atkins and CFTC Chair Michael Selig, both his nominees, to press publicly for the bill’s passage. Each signaled a willingness to tackle crypto regulation through administrative action if Congress did not act. Source
The legislation would create a framework to sort digital assets into securities, commodities, or payment stablecoins. Major financial institutions and digital-asset firms have endorsed it. Banking lobbyists, though, have flagged concerns about stablecoin yield provisions, and some lawmakers want stronger ethics language. Certain Republicans have charged that Democrats are “deliberately playing politics and holding the bill back.”
Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), a longtime crypto advocate, weighed in on the NSA shift Friday. “This bipartisan bill gives law enforcement real tools to fight the illicit finance crimes hurting hard working Americans,” she posted on X. Source
Whether other law-enforcement groups that voiced concerns will follow the NSA remains unclear. The September 15 cloture vote will decide if the CLARITY Act reaches the floor. Getting there takes 60 senators willing to break a filibuster.
