Stablecoin yield deal done — but Kennedy's housing grudge may still derail CLARITY Act timing.

The CLARITY Act's path to markup has cleared its most visible hurdle: the Tillis-Alsobrooks compromise resolves the stablecoin yield standoff by permitting rewards tied to platform usage and activity while banning passive yield on idle balances. That keeps crypto firms from replicating high-yield savings accounts and quiets the bank lobby's loudest objection.

But Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott still needs all thirteen Republican committee members before moving to a bipartisan markup he's targeting for May — and Sen. John Kennedy is reportedly withholding support over unfinished bicameral work on the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a dispute Scott cannot resolve unilaterally. Kennedy's leverage is purely positional: he holds a vote Scott needs, and his price is movement on housing.

Beyond the vote math, several substantive issues remain open — software-developer protections under the…