Latest news with #HouseFreedomCaucus
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Crypto bills stall amid GOP infighting, leaving House in limbo
The House floor was locked at a standstill Wednesday afternoon as a diverse array of House Republicans sparred over a trio of cryptocurrency bills and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) searched for consensus to unfreeze the floor. A procedural vote to advance the three crypto measures — meant to run for just five minutes — remained open more than three hours later as lawmakers from across the GOP's ideological spectrum shuffled in and out of meetings with leadership to discuss the stalled legislation. As of publication, seven Republicans had voted 'no' on clearing the procedural hurdle, including Reps. Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Tim Burchett (Tenn.), Michael Cloud (Texas), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Scott Perry (Pa.), Chip Roy (Texas) and Keith Self (Texas) — enough to sink the vote in the GOP's narrow majority. By Wednesday evening, Republican Reps. Eli Crane (Ariz.) and Ralph Norman (S.C.) had also joined the 'no' votes, while Reps. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Mark Green (R-Tenn.) were not voting. Lawmakers had appeared poised to approve a series of procedural votes for the bills on Wednesday, after President Trump announced a deal Tuesday night with a contingent of Republican hard-liners who torpedoed a vote earlier in the day. The situation, however, quickly descended into disarray on Wednesday, as Trump's deal failed to appease the entire hard-line group, while seemingly alienating key leaders on the House Financial Services Committee. Three hard-liners — Roy, Self and Greene — initially cast 'no' votes on an early procedural motion before switching to 'yes' and allowing the measure to pass. Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), the chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, announced in a post on the social platform X during the vote that the House Freedom Caucus would back the rule after reaching an agreement with the president. 'Under this agreement, the Rules Committee will reconvene later today to add clear, strong anti–Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) provisions to the CLARITY legislation,' Harris said, referring to a bill laying out regulatory rules for the crypto industry. 'This is an important step to ensure Americans are protected from government overreach into their financial privacy,' he added. 'We remain committed to securing these critical protections in the final legislation and ensuring they are preserved as the bill moves through the Senate and into law.' Leadership appeared to put that plan in motion on Wednesday, sending alerts for a 4 p.m. meeting of the House Rules Committee. Just after 4 p.m., however, that gathering was canceled. Drama continued in the next vote — the final procedural hurdle before a final vote — when Roy and Greene once again cast 'no' votes. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.), vice chair of the House Financial Services Committee, also initially voted against the measure. Johnson huddled with members in his office off the House floor, after which Huizenga switched his vote to 'yes,' while five other hard-liners joined Roy and Greene and changed their votes to 'no.' Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) appeared optimistic about the legislation's prospects Wednesday afternoon, suggesting there was 'a lot of progress.' 'People in good faith are trying to get to 'yes,'' he told reporters. 'They're trying to figure out what is the right way to put the deal together. I think most everybody in that room has a high level of confidence that we're going to get the votes that we need to get this done shortly.' A source familiar with the matter said lawmakers are considering adding a crypto provision to the National Defense Authorization Act or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Republicans were hopeful that they could pass the three crypto bills by Thursday as they celebrate 'Crypto Week,' but the revolt by 12 hard-line conservatives on Tuesday — and ensuing drama on Wednesday — stopped that effort in its tracks, bringing the chamber to a screeching halt. Republicans must adopt a rule to begin debate and tee up a final vote on the crypto bills. Rule votes are typically routine, party-line affairs, with members of the majority party voting in favor and those in the minority party voting in opposition. In recent years, however, some members in the majority have used the votes as a way to showcase opposition to leadership or legislation. The latest drama leaves the GENIUS Act, a bill setting up a regulatory framework for dollar-backed digital tokens called stablecoins, in limbo. If it can clear the House, the bill is poised to head to Trump's desk, where the president has indicated he is eager to sign the measure into law. The two other crypto bills up for consideration — the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act — have yet to pass the Senate and face a much more uncertain future. This has been central to opposition from the hard-line GOP contingent. They argue the GENIUS Act could pave the way for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) because it does not include any explicit provisions blocking such a development. While the anti-CBDC bill would bar the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC, it appears unlikely to receive enough support to clear the Senate and become law. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, sometimes referred to simply as the CLARITY Act, faces a similarly questionable path in the upper chamber, where senators are preparing to release their own version of crypto market structure legislation. Crypto market structure legislation seeks to provide regulatory clarity for the industry by dividing up oversight between two financial regulators — the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Stablecoin and market structure legislation, long sought by the crypto industry, has become a key priority for President Trump and GOP leaders. After initially promising to get both bills across the finish line before Congress leaves for its August recess, they have since settled for passing only the GENIUS Act by the end of the month. The White House and key senators have said they're now hoping to wrap up market structure legislation by the end of September. Mike Lillis contributed to this report. Updated at 5:50 p.m. EDT Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
House passes historic crypto bill, the GENIUS Act, after right-wing rebellion
Washington — The House on Thursday passed a landmark piece of legislation to regulate cryptocurrency after its fate appeared in limbo when right-wing Republicans staged a rebellion that brought the floor to a standstill. The bill, known as the GENIUS Act, is the first major crypto legislation ever passed by Congress. It now heads to President Trump's desk. It passed in a bipartisan vote of 308 to 122, with 206 Republicans and 102 Democrats supporting it. On Tuesday, a dozen conservatives sank a procedural vote to advance three crypto bills, including the GENIUS Act, which establishes a regulatory framework for the $250 billion market for stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency tied to the value of an asset like the U.S. dollar. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, abruptly canceled the remaining floor votes and the holdouts went to the White House to meet Mr. Trump, who later announced that they "have all agreed" to fall in line. But drama unfolded during Wednesday's procedural vote when a few holdouts initially voted against moving forward before dropping their opposition, which was short-lived. The next procedural vote to set up debate on the spate of bills was held open for nearly 10 hours as the holdouts sought to merge a broader market structure bill with legislation to ban a central bank digital currency. Republican Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, who leads the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said holdouts had made a deal with Mr. Trump to package the two digital asset measures. The plan ran into opposition from those who wrote the legislation and upended what House Republicans had termed "crypto week." House Republicans had originally wanted the GENIUS Act to be married with the CLARITY Act, a broader bill that would set rules for when a digital asset is considered a commodity or security. Combining the crypto bills would have sent the legislation back to the Senate and slowed the process. Mr. Trump had pressed Congress to quickly pass the GENIUS Act as a standalone bill, saying it would make the U.S. a leader in digital assets. This week, conservatives pushed to tie the CLARITY Act with the controversial Anti-Central Bank Digital Currency Surveillance State Act, which would prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency. Conservatives said the Senate's stablecoin bill and the broader market structure legislation were insufficient because it would allow for a central bank digital currency, which they opposed. "We feel like we need to be dealing with all this at once," said Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who helped stall the bill. A deal was ultimately made late Wednesday to tie the ban on a central bank digital currency with the must-pass annual defense reauthorization bill, and holdouts again flipped their votes to allow the legislative process to move on. The Senate approved the bipartisan stablecoin bill last month after experiencing hiccups caused by a Democratic revolt over concerns about the Trump family's business ventures involving crypto and the potential that they could make the president vulnerable to foreign influence. The Trump family's crypto investments have increased their wealth by billions of dollars in recent months as the administration continues to loosen the federal government's regulatory approach to the digital currency industry as a whole. The White House has denied that there are any conflicts of interest and said Mr. Trump's assets are in a trust managed by his children. Democratic critics were also worried that the legislation did not contain strong enough provisions to protect consumers, the financial system and national security. It's faced similar criticism from House Democrats. "By passing this bill, Congress will be telling the world that Congress is OK with corruption, OK with foreign companies buying influence," Rep. Maxine Waters of California, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, said Thursday. Democrats who back the legislation have argued that regulations are long overdue, even if the measure is imperfect. "The question is, do you want some rules of the road or no rules of the road?" Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey said during floor debate. The broader market structure bill also passed with bipartisan support and now heads to the Senate. The legislation banning a central bank digital currency was approved largely along party lines. Son of man who was violently detained by ICE reacts after release 7.3 magnitude earthquake hits southern Alaska Nanny on the run in alleged California surrogacy scam
The Hill
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Even Trump can't quell the House GOP's penchant for chaos
While President Trump has managed to push House Republicans across the finish line on his top priorities, he hasn't yet cracked the code on getting the narrowly divided chamber to overcome its penchant for chaos. After uniting in stunning fashion earlier this month to pass the GOP's 'big, beautiful bill' and celebrating the win, Republicans plunged back into disarray this week when a cohort of hardline conservatives tanked a procedural vote over a trio of cryptocurrency bills, bringing the floor to a screeching halt. The intra-party dispute — complete with a public floor rebellion and record-setting vote, a White House visit and hours of closed-door negotiations — underscored that chaos is a mainstay of the razor-thin House GOP majority that not even Trump can stamp out. 'I will say again, I am tired of making history, I just want [a] normal Congress,' Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said late Wednesday night after leaders finally resolved the issues over the cryptocurrency bills. 'Some people have forgotten what that looks like.' The House on Wednesday set a new record for the longest a vote has ever been held open in the modern Congress, reaching nearly 10 hours for a procedural vote, as members of the House Freedom Caucus and their allies negotiated a resolution to their issues with a cryptocurrency bill. That broke the seven hour, 24 minute record set just two weeks earlier as Republicans squabbled ahead of passing Trump's 'One Big, Beautiful Bill.' That came after those hardline conservatives tanked a procedural rule vote on Tuesday in protest, a once-exceedingly-rare occurrence that has become commonplace since Republicans regained the majority in 2023. Tuesday's vote on the rule — which serves as a test for party loyalty — marked the sixth failed rule vote of Johnson's Speakership; former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) faced four failed rule votes in 2023 before he was ousted as Speaker. Hold ups didn't subside after leaders resolved the cryptocurrency issues. On Thursday, disputes over how the Trump administration has handled disclosures relating to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein held up final approval of a bill to codify $9 billion in Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts to public broadcasting and foreign aid. Republican leaders worked with members of the House Rules Committee to craft a measure calling on release of more Epstein material, aiming to quell public outrage after nearly all the panel's GOP members voted against a Democratic amendment on Epstein earlier in the week. But while Johnson lamented chaos being the normal state of affairs, he argued that results are more important than process. 'As long as we get it done it doesn't matter to me how long a vote is held open, we just got to get the votes. And we did,' Johnson said. Trump has been key in pushing recalcitrant Republicans to yes on key measures, such as his 'One Big Beautiful Bill.' But Trump giving his blessing to one stubborn faction doesn't always immediately solve the problem. This week, for instance, a group of House Freedom Caucus members and their allies huddled at the White House over their problems with the cryptocurrency measure, and got a stamp of approval from Trump on one idea — but then Republican leaders had to work out details and get buy-in from members of the Financial Services Committee and elsewhere before coming to a final agreement. Some of the problem is inherent in a narrow majority. Republicans can afford to lose just three votes on any party line measure, meaning leaders must work extra hard to balance concerns from warring factions. Democrats faced some hiccups, too, when they had a similarly narrow majority under President Biden. 'It's just the dynamic that we're with a three-seat majority, it's gonna be difficult to do anything. We're all individuals — people didn't leave their voting card with the Speaker,' said Rep. Eric Burlinson (R-Mo.), a member of the House Freedom Caucus. 'People have different opinions. It's what makes political debate healthy and makes for a better product.' But the maximum-pressure ethos of the House Freedom Caucus, which regularly uses floor rebellions as a way to negotiate legislative changes or commitments, means that the House floor is incredibly unpredictable and often frozen. Other members have long been annoyed with those tactics from hardline conservatives — particularly since many of their recent stances that held up legislative activity have resulted not in tangible changes to legislative text, but vague commitments from leadership and the Trump administration. 'It's not becoming frustrating. It's been frustrating for the last two-plus years,' Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), a frequent critic of the House Freedom Caucus, said of the group Tuesday. The Freedom Caucus, of course, insists that it is getting wins despite the pattern of eventually voting for legislation that its members hold up. 'I'll put our effectiveness up against anyone if they want to match up scorecards,' Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said earlier this month after the House passed the 'One Big, Beautiful Bill.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
How GOP megabill fuels debt for future generations
President Trump's newly passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act will, by most conventional estimates, add trillions to America's national debt to pay for permanent tax cuts. Republicans insist the bill will unleash economic activity that offsets any lost tax revenue, but few economists agree. The consequences could be severe for future generations. A growing debt could make borrowing more expensive in the long term, force policymakers to make painful cuts to spending and social services down the road, slow economic growth and eventually push the nation toward a debt crisis, economists say. Republicans have historically been among the loudest worriers about the national debt. The House Freedom Caucus blasted GOP senators for increasing deficit spending in the final version of the 'big, beautiful bill.' 'The Senate isn't listening—their version adds over $1T to the deficit, completely ignoring the House framework,' Freedom Caucus member Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) wrote June 30, before voting for it a few days later. 'This isn't just reckless—it's fiscally criminal,' he added. Self and other fiscal hawks said they received assurances from Trump that helped them come around on the bill. To move the bill through the Senate's budget reconciliation process, GOP leadership also used a budgetary sleight-of-hand to argue that the bill didn't balloon deficits, but reduced them. 'Let me be very clear: It reduces the deficit. When you have an honest assessment of what current law is, this is a reduction in deficits over 10 years,' White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought asserted on Fox News in the days leading up to the bill's passage. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), meanwhile, estimated the bill would add $3.4 trillion to the country's debt burden over the next decade. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated $4.1 trillion, and the conservative Cato Institute projected $6 trillion. 'This bill will likely turn out to be the single most expensive legislation since the 1960s,' said Jessica Riedl, an economist and fellow at the Manhattan Institute. 'It is one of the most irresponsible bills in memory.' How we got here The federal government has long spent more than it has earned, forcing it to borrow money by issuing bonds and other securities, which earn reliable interest for investors. At the end of 2024, the national debt held by individuals, businesses and other members of the public was about $28.1 billion, or just under 98 percent of the country's annual gross domestic product (GDP). That's different from the commonly quoted gross debt of $36 trillion, which includes intragovernmental debt — money one part of the federal government owes to another part, such as the trust funds that supply Social Security. This gross debt is used to determine when the government is near the national debt limit, a ceiling that has become a political football in recent years. Economists often prefer to measure the debt held by the public relative to GDP, rather than in absolute terms, because that better describes the country's ability to keep up with payments. The debt has grown significantly relative to GDP in the last five years, largely as a result of trillions of dollars in federal relief spending during the COVID-19 pandemic. The yearly cost of interest on the debt is also substantial, accounting for about 16 percent of total federal spending in fiscal 2025. Even before the 'big, beautiful bill' came into the picture, economists warned long-term spending on that trajectory was unsustainable. The new legislation includes about $4 trillion in tax cuts and new spending, partly offset by $1.1 trillion in net spending reductions. 'There may be a very short-run positive economic effect, but the long-run impact will be much worse,' Dominik Lett, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, said of the megabill. 'We are particularly damning future generations.' Downstream borrowing effects As the United States borrows more money, interest rates on government bonds generally rise to incentivize investors to buy more debt. That, in turn, increases the cost of borrowing for everyday forms of consumer and business lending. Factoring in the impacts of the megabill, the Yale Budget Lab projected the yield on 10-year Treasury bonds — a key indicator of investor sentiment — would rise an additional 1.2 percentage points by 2054, compared to if the bill didn't pass. That would push up costs on mortgages, commercial real estate loans, and other kinds of borrowing, said Ernie Tedeschi, an economist at the lab and a member of former President Biden's Council of Economic Advisers. In five years, the interest on a mortgage from the median 2024 home price — based on a $413,000 loan with a 20 percent down payment — could go up an additional $1,100 due to the bill, Tedeschi estimated. In 30 years, the bill would add $4,000 to such a mortgage's interest. 'I think that Americans, having gone through periods, first of inflation, higher prices, during the pandemic, and then higher interest rates later on in the pandemic, appreciate that higher interest rates are not a remote concern for them, or something that only affects the financial sector,' he said. 'That's a kitchen table issue,' he added. Increased government borrowing could also disincentivize other types of investment, said Ben Harris, an economist at the Brookings Institution. 'You'll have so many Americans and foreigners, people who would have invested the United States, buying up the debt rather than investing other productive things — everything from technology to health care, everything that really makes us a productive country — that will now be going will be directed towards paying off our our debt,' he said. The CBO estimated at the beginning of this year that the debt would reach 166 percent of the GDP by 2054. Several estimates say the bill could push that ratio even higher. The Yale Budget Lab projects that the debt-to-GDP ratio in 2054 will be 179.1 percent when factoring in the megabill. Some Democrats and Republicans have called to eliminate the country's debt ceiling entirely, arguing that the laws of economic gravity don't apply to U.S. debt given the scale and resiliency of American commerce. Economists aren't so sure, given the rate at which the debt is outpacing the growth of the economy. 'Long-term, we risk a full debt crisis,' Riedl said. 'At some point, the bond market will not be able to supply that much lending at plausible interest rates. A debt crisis would likely begin with the bond market panicking over the government's borrowing demands, which can hurt the market and drastically raise interest rates until Washington commits to drastic deficit reduction.' Tough choices ahead Some budget hawks have dreamed of a balanced budget, where Washington would spend only as much as it earns in a fiscal year. However, that would require massive cuts to spending or significant tax hikes, both of which would be politically perilous. Several economists estimated that stabilizing the debt with respect to GDP would take at least $10 trillion in deficit reduction over the next 10 years — 'a tall order,' Tedeschi said. 'To put that in perspective, the most controversial cuts to Medicaid [in the megabill], that even Republicans in Congress were debating and not all of them were comfortable with, never got higher than $900 billion in a decade,' he said. Among the biggest single line items driving the debt are Social Security and Medicare, the federal health insurance program for seniors. Debt hawks have long looked to cutting those programs as a way to reduce deficits. 'Closing these deficits could require doubling middle class taxes or essentially eviscerating Social Security, Medicare and defense,' Riedl said. Social Security and Medicare are both marching toward insolvency on current trajectories, with estimates that funds will start running short within the next decade. The megabill slightly accelerates this timeline, according to an estimate by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. That could force Congress to make tough decisions about raising taxes or cutting benefits as soon as 2032. 'If we have more taxes to close larger Social Security and Medicare shortfalls, those will likely be done through the payroll tax,' said Robert Greenstein, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. 'Almost certainly part of the gap will be filled by Social Security benefit cuts, which would now be somewhat larger than they otherwise would be. And those cuts would affect people in future generations.' The megabill does reduce taxes for some Americans, particularly those high on the income scale. But it is still likely to decrease GDP in the long run compared to baseline policy assumptions: 0.3 percent less in 10 years and 4.6 percent in 30 years, according to analysis from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. 'The more we borrow now, the harder those decisions will be in the future,' added Lett, of the Cato Institute. 'So if people think the changes in the bill are already draconian, it will make the future changes necessary even worse.' 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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
U.S. House's 'Crypto Week' Shifts Toward Getting All Legislation Out Thursday
The U.S. House of Representatives' on-again, off-again "Crypto Week" has turned into a crypto day as a dispute among Republicans found a late-night resolution and the lawmakers hatched a plan to pursue all of its crypto legislative votes late Thursday. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act — the industry's top priority, which would set out rules for U.S. crypto markets — is first on the agenda in voting set to take place just before 4 p.m., according to House plans. Then comes the second priority: the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which would establish government oversight of stablecoin issuers. That second vote would be the last step before GENIUS could become U.S. law — the first major U.S. crypto policy. In a one-two-three strategy, the lawmakers would then handle a bill to ban a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC) — the issue that caused Republican members of the House Freedom Caucus to derail earlier procedural steps to advance the bills as they worked to get assurances that the CBDC issue would find its way into must-pass legislation. The procedural votes that were expected to be routine on Wednesday turned into a lengthy ordeal in which House Republicans fell into debate over the CBDC component, stretching the procedural delay almost to midnight and putting off the expected Wednesday vote on the Clarity Act. Back on track now, the White House is eagerly setting up a Friday afternoon ceremony in which President Donald Trump can sign the GENIUS Act, officially meeting one piece of a promise to the industry that his administration would establish U.S. crypto regulations this year. "This is common-sense, forward-looking legislation," said Representative French Hill, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, during a Thursday House floor debate on the GENIUS Act. "Wow, we're actually legislating," Hill said. "We're seeing bills passed in both chambers." However, Representative Maxine Waters, the committee's ranking Democrat, argued the bill would "plant the seeds for the next financial crisis." Though GENIUS may be in the lead, the Clarity Act to oversee the rest of the industry is much larger and more complex than the stablecoin bill. Though Senator Tim Scott, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, set a Sept. 30 deadline for his chamber to finish similar market structure legislation, a number of difficult hurdles remain to be cleared in that 10-week period. First, his committee hasn't yet shared the language of the bill it's been working on, which has so far only been described through a series of "principles" the panel's Republican leaders issued. Then the bill also has to be approved by the Senate Agriculture Committee, which held a hearing on the topic this week but isn't as advanced in its work on this topic. With objections already raised by Senate Democrats to the existing proposals — including from the ranking Democrats on both committees — "working through Democratic concerns on market structure will take well into the fall, and quite possibly beyond," predicted Beacon Policy Advisors, a firm that tracks regulatory developments in Washington. Though Scott said the senators would use the Clarity Act as a "strong template," crypto lobbyists are expecting a substantially different bill in the Senate. That would mean the House would face at least one more vote on crypto market structure down the road. If the House's Clarity Act vote goes as planned on Thursday, it's expected to see a big bipartisan result (with industry lobbyists so far expecting more than 30 Democrats to get on board). Crypto insiders are laser-focused on the number of Democrats backing that effort, which they believe will have an effect on the enthusiasm of the Senate to pursue its own bill. An especially strong result — akin to the 71 Democrats a predecessor bill drew in the previous congressional session — "will put pressure on the Senate to act," said policy analyst Jaret Seiberg of TD Cowen, in a client note, describing the market structure effort as much more important for the sector than GENIUS, "as it will establish the regulatory regime for trading platforms and tokens." So far, this Senate has shown a strong inclination toward crypto policy, having passed the GENIUS Act with a lopsided 68-30 result. But the market structure legislation could face a tougher road, because it's more complicated, and Democrats have been raising angry opposition to President Trump's personal business ties to the industry, which some lawmakers argue constitute a corrupt conflict of interests. Adds comments from lawmakers during the House floor debate on legislation. Sign in to access your portfolio
