Brad Garlinghouse cited in U.S. CLARITY Act press thread

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee’s Republican majority included Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse in a May 15 press release after the panel advanced the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, known as the CLARITY Act, by a 15-9 vote. The release gathered statements from industry and other stakeholders after the committee approved H.R. 3633 and sent it to the Senate floor. Garlinghouse’s name then circulated in crypto-policy threads on X on May 16 alongside excerpts from the committee’s fact sheets and markup coverage. ### Where did Garlinghouse’s quote appear? The Senate Banking Committee’s May 15 “What They Are Saying” release listed Garlinghouse among outside backers of the bill. The committee attributed this statement to him: Ripple backs the bill because digital assets “deserve the same rules and protections as every other asset class,” and said U.S. leadership in crypto made this “the moment.” (banking.senate.gov) The committee release sat alongside a broader push from Chairman Tim Scott’s office to frame the bill as a bipartisan market-structure measure. The same page also carried statements from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, former White House crypto and AI official David Sacks, and AARP’s Bill Sweeney. (banking.senate.gov) ### What exactly did the committee do on May 14 and May 15? The Senate Banking Committee held an executive session on May 14 to consider H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, according to the committee calendar. On May 15, the committee majority said the bill had advanced out of committee by a 15-9 vote. (banking.senate.gov) Chairman Tim Scott, Senator Cynthia Lummis and Senator Thom Tillis had released the bill text on May 12 as the basis for the markup. Their release said the text reflected continued negotiations with Democratic colleagues and input from lawmakers, regulators, law enforcement, financial institutions, innovators and consumer advocates. (banking.senate.gov) ### What does the CLARITY Act say in the committee’s own materials? The Banking Committee majority’s May 12 fact sheet said the bill would create “clear, enforceable guardrails” for digital asset markets. The committee said the measure includes disclosure requirements, resale restrictions meant to curb insider abuse, anti-fraud protections, and Bank Secrecy Act treatment for digital commodity brokers, dealers and exchanges. (banking.senate.gov) A separate section-by-section summary said the bill would also require anti-money-laundering programs, customer identification and customer due diligence for covered digital-asset intermediaries. Another committee fact sheet said the measure includes educational materials for retail users and a coordinated financial-literacy strategy by regulators. (banking.senate.gov) ### Why was Garlinghouse already tied to this debate before this week? Brad Garlinghouse had already been part of the Senate’s digital-asset record before the latest press release. The Senate Banking Committee posted his testimony from a July 9, 2025 hearing titled “From Wall Street to Web3: Building Tomorrow’s Digital Asset Markets,” where he appeared as a witness alongside executives from Blockchain Association, Chainalysis and Paradigm. (banking.senate.gov) The committee’s current CLARITY push also builds on earlier Senate work. A July 22, 2025 release from Scott and Lummis said their discussion draft built on the CLARITY Act after it had passed the House with bipartisan support. (banking.senate.gov) ### Why did the quote show up in social threads on May 16? X posts on May 16 linked Garlinghouse’s quoted support to the committee’s press package and to excerpts from CLARITY Act fact sheets that were already public on the Senate Banking Committee website. Those materials included the stakeholder roundup released May 15 and the committee’s May 12 fact sheet describing the bill’s consumer-protection and anti-money-laundering provisions. (banking.senate.gov) The next formal step is on the Senate floor. The committee majority said on May 15 that the bill had moved out of committee, and the Senate calendar and leadership will determine when H.R. 3633 receives floor consideration. (banking.senate.gov)