FRENCH HILL STILL WANTS THE CLARITY ACT IN THE LAME DUCK — HE SAYS AGENCY RULES FALL SHORT OF A LAW — THE SEC JUST CHANGED ITS RULES SO ONE COMMISSIONER CAN BE A QUORUM

French Hill, the Arkansas congressman who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, went on Mornings with Fox Business on October 7, 2026, to talk about the midterms and the CFTC’s proposed crypto rules. Cointelegraph quotes him hoping “we can get [CLARITY] passed in the lame duck session of Congress,” and saying: “We need that permanent law change to make sure America is number one in digital assets and blockchain technology.” His argument, as Cointelegraph reports it: what the SEC and CFTC have done since the Senate failed to pass the bill in September falls short of a law.

That is not the White House’s read. On September 22, crypto adviser Patrick Witt said “There’s no time to waste now” and pointed to the authorities the agencies already have. Hill wants a statute. The White House is fine with rules. Cointelegraph counts 22 days in session for the Senate between the November midterms and the start of the new Congress.

Look at who writes the rules. The SEC is built for five commissioners. Since Hester Peirce left on October 2, it has two: Paul Atkins and Mark Uyeda. On September 30 it amended its quorum rule. When fewer than three commissioners are in office, “a quorum shall consist of the number of members in office,” and if one of the two steps aside on a matter, the one left is a quorum for it. The CFTC’s chair, Michael Selig, is its only commissioner, per Cointelegraph. Three people are writing the rulebook for digital assets in the United States.

A rule written by three appointees can be rewritten by the next three. That is Hill’s case for a statute, and it is a reason not to mistake a rule for a right. Bitcoin’s rules are not written in Washington. Nodes enforce them. What Washington writes governs the exchanges, the brokers and the paper on top. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $83,453.