‘I pray you never feel this': Sen. Padilla breaks down over being handcuffed at Kristi Noem presser
California Democratic Senator Alex Padilla broke down on the Senate floor as he recounted being forcibly removed from a news conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles. Padilla revealed he was escorted by National Guard and FBI officials and accused the administration of silencing dissent. In a powerful statement, he warned, 'If that's what they'll do to a senator, imagine what they'll do to any American.' Show more 08:14
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Time of India
19 minutes ago
- Time of India
Senate Passes Cryptocurrency Bill, Handing Industry a Victory
Live Events STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS. (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel The Senate on Tuesday passed legislation to establish a regulatory framework for stablecoins, putting the cryptocurrency industry, which had long been viewed with suspicion by lawmakers in Washington, on the brink of a major policy approval of the bill, known as the GENIUS Act, followed an aggressive lobbying campaign aimed at transforming the cryptocurrency industry's image from scandal-plagued experiment to legitimate financial passage came over the fierce objections of many Democrats, who warned that the measure lacked strict-enough regulations or oversight to prevent abuses, including anti-corruption rules that would bar President Donald Trump and his family from continuing to profit from bill still must be passed by the House and signed by the president. But the 68-30 vote in the Senate marked the first time the chamber has approved major cryptocurrency legislation. It represented a significant step toward giving the industry what it has long sought from Washington: the credibility that comes with federal a type of digital currency tied to the value of the U.S. dollar, are often seen as comparatively reliable types of cryptocurrency. These cryptocurrencies are designed to avoid the wild fluctuations in value of some popular coins like bitcoin, making them something of a bridge to the world of traditional Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., the bill's lead sponsor, said the legislation would be a significant step toward breaking down the barriers between traditional financial markets and decentralized markets. He said it would help bring the country's financial system into the modern era."To modernize our payment system and to restore our nation's competitive edge, we must act now," he said ahead of the vote on the Senate legislation's success reflects the dramatic shift that has taken place in Washington as Republicans have consolidated a governing the Biden administration cracked down on digital assets, Trump has pulled back sharply on such regulations, signaling a more permissive stance that aligns with the cryptocurrency industry's has coincided with Trump's family's rapid expansion into the industry, which has made the president into a crypto dealer who stands to make huge sums of money from a policy statement released before the final vote, White House officials wrote that the bill "removes regulatory uncertainty that has hindered innovation and competitiveness in the digital assets sector." They also argued that the legislation would enhance the dominance of the U.S. dollar in the cryptocurrency space over other forms of biggest hurdle for the industry has always been legislative: securing regulations that confer legitimacy without adding onerous requirements. And for that, executives and lobbyists had to turn their full attention to Capitol Hill Before the 2024 election cycle, a network of Silicon Valley crypto executives and political strategists set their sights on Washington. They formed a number of crypto-focused super political action committees that spent a total of more than $130 million to influence tight congressional races across the backed by the super PACs, which supported Democrats and Republicans, had a staggering success rate, winning 53 of 58 that work has begun to pay off. Eighteen Democrats joined Republicans in backing the measure, while two Republicans opposed stablecoin bill would give a government imprimatur to an important branch of the industry and help encourage more companies in the traditional finance world to experiment with digital currencies. Circle, the world's second-largest stablecoin company, went public this month, with its shares surging nearly 170% on the first day of at virtually all the major U.S. crypto companies have voiced support for the legislation."This is a foundation for legitimizing stablecoins, embedding them into the global network of money movement," John Wu, president of the crypto firm Ava Labs, said in an email, adding that the so-called GENIUS Act "lives up to its name."Hagerty said the bill would improve payment efficiency, boost demand for U.S. Treasury securities and help maintain the dollar's global dominance. Without action, he warned, the United States risked losing its competitive edge for an asset that many Americans are already using, an argument echoed by a number of his colleagues."Many constituents of mine and of others already have money in stablecoin, and there are no rules," said Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M. "There should be rules surrounding this."A coalition of Democrats, led by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, have supported the legislation despite misgivings from some senior members of the Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was unforgiving in her criticism, arguing that the legislation's "thin regulation" mirrored the deregulatory approach that helped create the 2008 financial crisis."It's the same move a second time," Warren said in an interview. "Why is the industry here asking for regulation? They want the gold star of U.S. government oversight without really having significant oversight."Warren is not alone. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the minority leader, has also opposed the bill consistently. He said that it improved through negotiations, but he criticized the absence of anti-corruption protections, specifically those aimed at preventing Trump and his family from continuing to profit from cryptocurrency, an issue that became a wedge among Democrats as the bill made its way through the Democrats believed they would have a chance at addressing those concerns. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the majority leader, promised that their changes would be considered, and Democrats contributed to the more than 100 proposed them was one from Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., who sought to bar the president and his family from issuing stablecoins."We need guardrails that ensure that government officials aren't openly asking people to buy their coins in order to increase their personal profit or their family's profit," Merkley said on the Senate Republicans refused to consider any measure that touched on Trump's involvement in the industry, and ultimately shut down the amendment process, leaving a small bipartisan group of senators to negotiate only a few changes to the crypto-friendly Democrats helped ensure that the measure made it through the Senate. Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., noted that the final version included key consumer protections and would ensure FDIC oversight for certain stablecoin activities. But he conceded that a major Democratic priority -- a ban on public officials and their families profiting from stablecoin ventures -- was left the bipartisan support, a pair of Republicans remained Josh Hawley , R-Mo., objected to what he called a watered-down effort to keep big technology companies out of the stablecoin space. He had pushed for an outright ban on publicly traded tech firms like Amazon and Alphabet issuing stablecoins. Instead, the bill would delegate that authority to a newly created regulatory board."There's a board that can approve them anyway; that's ridiculous," Hawley said. He also sought to revoke liability protections for tech companies that issue stablecoins, arguing that financial firms should not enjoy the same shield as content Rand Paul, R-Ky., argued that the bill was too restrictive, saying its regulations, including a requirement that a board unanimously approve issuers, were "going to make it very difficult for stablecoin to succeed."This article originally appeared in The New York Times
Hindustan Times
29 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Immigration raids in Los Angeles hit small business owners: ‘It's worse than COVID'
Juan Ibarra stands outside his fruit and vegetable outlet in Los Angeles' vast fresh produce market, the place in the city center where Hispanic restaurateurs, street vendors and taco truck operators buy supplies every day. On Monday morning, the usually bustling market was largely empty. Since Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials began conducting immigration raids more than a week ago, including at a textile factory two blocks away, Ibarra said business has virtually dried up. His street vendor customers are at home in hiding, while restaurant workers are too scared to travel to the market to pick up supplies. Most of the market's 300 workers who are in the US illegally have stopped showing up. Ibarra, who pays $8,500 a month in rent for his outlet, which sells grapes, pineapples, melons, peaches, tomatoes and corn, usually takes in about $2,000 on a normal day. Now it's $300, if he's lucky. Shortly before he spoke to Reuters he had, for the first time since the ICE raids began, been forced to throw out rotten fruit. He has to pay a garbage company $70 a pallet to do that. "It's pretty much a ghost town," Ibarra said. "It's almost COVID-like. People are scared. We can only last so long like this - a couple of months maybe." Ibarra, 32, who was born in the US to Mexican parents and is a US citizen, is not alone in seeing President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigrants in the country illegally devastate his small business. It's happening across Los Angeles and California, other business owners and experts say, and threatens to significantly damage the local economy. A third of California's workers are immigrants and 40% of its entrepreneurs are foreign-born, according to the American Immigration Council. The Trump administration, concerned about the economic impacts of his mass deportation policy, shifted its focus in recent days, telling ICE to pause raids on farms, restaurants and hotels. The ICE raids triggered protests in Los Angeles. Those prompted Trump to send National Guard troops and US Marines into the city, against the wishes of California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom. Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said violent protesters in Los Angeles had created an unsafe environment for local businesses. "It's the Democrat riots - not enforcement of federal immigration law - that is hurting small businesses," Jackson told Reuters. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a motion to assess the economic impacts of ICE's raids and to mobilize resources to help immigrant workers and their families. "The ongoing immigration raids have created a chilling effect, with many families afraid to leave their homes to go to work or to support our beloved businesses," said Hilda Solis, the board's chair pro tem who co-sponsored the motion. The recent shift in focus by Trump and ICE has been no help for Pedro Jimenez, 62, who has run and owned a Mexican restaurant in a largely working class, Hispanic neighborhood in Los Angeles for 24 years. Many in his community are so scared of ICE they are staying home and have stopped frequenting his restaurant. Jimenez, who crossed into the US illegally but received citizenship in 1987 after former Republican President Ronald Reagan signed legislation granting amnesty to many immigrants without legal status, said he's taking in $7,000 a week less than he was two weeks ago. Last Friday and Saturday he closed at 5 p.m., rather than 9 p.m., because his restaurant was empty. "This is really hurting everybody's business," he said. "It's terrible. It's worse than COVID." Andrew Selee, president of the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute, said the Trump administration began its immigration crackdown by focusing on people with criminal convictions. But that has shifted to workplace raids in the past two weeks, he said. "They are targeting the hard working immigrants who are most integrated in American society," Selee said. "The more immigration enforcement is indiscriminate and broad, rather than targeted, the more it disrupts the American economy in very real ways." Across Los Angeles, immigrants described hunkering down, some even skipping work, to avoid immigration enforcement. Luis, 45, a Guatemalan hot dog vendor who asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of being targeted by ICE, said he showed up this weekend at the Santa Fe Springs swap meet - a flea market and music event. He was told by others that ICE officers had just been there. He and other vendors without legal immigration status quickly left, he said. "This has all been psychologically exhausting," he said. 'I have to work to survive, but the rest of the time I stay inside.'
Economic Times
36 minutes ago
- Economic Times
US Senate passes stablecoin bill in milestone for crypto industry
The US Senate on Tuesday passed a bill to create a regulatory framework for U.S.-dollar-pegged cryptocurrency tokens known as stablecoins, in a watershed moment for the digital asset industry. The bill, dubbed the GENIUS Act, received bipartisan support, with several Democrats joining most Republicans to back the proposed federal rules. It passed 68-30. The House of Representatives, which is controlled by Republicans, needs to pass its version of the bill before it heads to President Donald Trump's desk for approval. "It is a major milestone," said Andrew Olmem, a managing partner at law firm Mayer Brown and the former deputy director of the National Economic Council during Trump's first term. "It establishes, for the first time, a regulatory regime for stablecoins, a rapidly developing financial product and industry." Stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a constant value, usually a 1:1 dollar peg, are commonly used by crypto traders to move funds between tokens. Their use has grown rapidly in recent years, and proponents say that they could be used to send payments instantly. If signed into law, the stablecoin bill would require tokens to be backed by liquid assets - such as U.S. dollars and short-term Treasury bills - and for issuers to publicly disclose the composition of their reserves on a monthly basis. The crypto industry has long pushed for lawmakers to pass legislation creating rules for digital assets, arguing that a clear framework could enable stablecoins to become more widely used. The sector spent more than $119 million backing pro-crypto congressional candidates in last year's elections and had tried to paint the issue as bipartisan. The House of Representatives passed a stablecoin bill last year but the Senate - in which Democrats held the majority at the time - did not take that bill up, and it died. Trump has sought to broadly overhaul U.S. cryptocurrency policies after courting cash from the industry during his presidential campaign. Bo Hines, who leads Trump's Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, has said the White House wants a stablecoin bill passed before August. Tensions on Capitol Hill over Trump's various crypto ventures at one point threatened to derail the digital asset sector's hope of legislation this year as Democrats have grown increasingly frustrated with Trump and his family members promoting their personal crypto projects. "In advancing these bills, lawmakers forfeited their opportunity to confront Trump's crypto grift - the largest, most flagrant corruption in presidential history," said Bartlett Naylor, financial policy advocate for Public Citizen, a consumer rights advocacy group. Trump's crypto ventures include a meme coin called $TRUMP, launched in January, and a business called World Liberty Financial, a crypto company owned partly by the president. The White House has said there are no conflicts of interest present for Trump and that his assets are in a trust managed by his children. Other Democrats expressed concern that the bill would not prevent big tech companies from issuing their own private stablecoins, and argued that legislation needed stronger anti-money laundering protections and prohibitions on foreign stablecoin issuers. "A bill that turbocharges the stablecoin market, while facilitating the president's corruption and undermining national security, financial stability, and consumer protection is worse than no bill at all," said Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, in remarks on the Senate floor in May. The bill could face further changes in the House of Representatives. In a statement, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors called for "critical changes" to mitigate financial stability risks. "CSBS remains concerned with the dramatic and unsupported expansion of the authority of uninsured banks to conduct money transmission or custody activities nationwide without the approval or oversight of host state supervisors," said Brandon Milhorn, president and CEO of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, in a statement.
