%1

The Senate passed a bill spending hundreds of billions of dollars on climate and healthcare programs while raising taxes on large, profitable companies, as Democrats unified around elements of President Biden’s agenda after a year of frustrated efforts to advance a broader package, the Wall Street Journal reported. The legislation, which passed the Senate 51-50 on Sunday with a tiebreaking vote by Vice President Kamala Harris, offers tax incentives for reducing carbon emissions, seeks to allow Medicare to negotiate the price of some prescription drugs, allots roughly $80 billion to the Internal Revenue Service and extends subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Along with a new 15% corporate minimum tax, it creates a 1% excise tax on companies’ stock buybacks and sets aside roughly $300 billion toward reducing the deficit. The package will still need to clear the narrowly Democratic House in a vote scheduled for Friday. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and progressive caucus leader Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.) have backed the proposal, putting it on course for likely approval. Republicans argued that the climate and tax package would do nothing to cool inflation and would hurt the economy, and that tax increases on corporations would hit households as well.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) said she would soon be ready to “move forward” on a revised version of Senate Democrats’ health-care, climate and deficit-reduction package, opening the door for party lawmakers to adopt the long-stalled bill as soon as this weekend, the Washington Post reported. Sinema offered her must-have support after Democratic leaders agreed to scale back some of their original tax proposals, capping days of speculation about her public silence and moving her party one step closer to fulfilling a central element of President Biden’s economic agenda. In a statement, Sinema said that Democrats had “agreed to remove” a key tax policy targeting wealthy investors that aimed to address what is known as the “carried interest loophole.” She also signaled they had made additional tweaks to a second provision that imposes a new minimum tax on corporations that currently pay nothing to the U.S. government. The latter set of revisions is likely to benefit some manufacturers, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the unreleased details. Many corporate executives, including Arizona business leaders, had petitioned Sinema to consider the consequences of the tax in recent days. With it, Democrats opted to seek a new 1 percent tax on corporate stock buybacks, a move that would make up at least some of the revenue that might have been lost as a result of the changes, the two people familiar with the matter said. And party lawmakers agreed to set aside new money at Sinema’s request to respond to climate issues including drought, according to the sources.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission would take the leading role in overseeing the two largest cryptocurrencies and the platforms where they are traded under a new bill from Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and John Boozman (R-Ark.), the Washington Post reported. Oversight of the remaining cryptocurrencies would be divided between the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission, though the process for making those determinations is not yet clear. The two agencies have been jockeying for more authority over digital assets, contributing to confusion in Washington over how to classify and regulate cryptocurrencies and the economy that has sprung up around them. The bill aims to provide some clarity by deeming as commodities both bitcoin and ethereum, which together account for roughly two-thirds of the cryptocurrency market. That would subject bitcoin and ethereum to regulation by the CFTC, which already oversees futures markets for both. And online platforms that allow investors to trade the digital tokens, such as Coinbase, would be required to register with the agency.

Two U.S. senators are preparing legislation that would give merchants the power to process many Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. credit cards over different networks, the Wall Street Journal reported. The bill, which could be introduced as soon as this week, aims to create more competition among U.S. credit card networks, a sector where Visa and Mastercard have long dominated. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) are expected to introduce the bill. Marshall said that banks and major card networks lobbied his office to not sign on to the bill. He decided to move forward after hearing from a growing number of merchants, including small businesses, restaurants, gas stations and convenience stores, about the toll of the rising credit card fees set by Visa and Mastercard that are often pocketed by large banks. Durbin spearheaded a similar rule for debit cards over a decade ago. The Durbin amendment, part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, requires that merchants have the ability to choose from at least two unaffiliated debit card networks when routing transactions.

Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) introduced legislation on Tuesday that would exempt small cryptopurchases from a capital gains tax, The Hill reported. The pair of lawmakers introduced a bill that would offer an exemption for personal transactions using cryptocurrency of less than $50 or personal transactions that have gains of under $50 from being subject to a capital gains tax. The legislation would encourage people to use cryptocurrency for small trades and transactions without worrying about being subject to typical taxation requirements. Transactions that use cryptocurrency can be taxed, according to the IRS’s website, which notes that “taxpayers transacting in virtual currency may have to report those transactions on their tax returns.” If the digital assets used in a transaction saw an increase in valuation, that person would currently be subject to a capital gains tax.

The Senate yesterday passed an expansive $280 billion bill aimed at building up America’s manufacturing and technological edge to counter China, embracing in an overwhelming bipartisan vote the most significant government intervention in industrial policy in decades, the New York Times reported. The legislation reflected a remarkable and rare consensus in a polarized Congress in favor of forging a long-term strategy to address the nation’s intensifying geopolitical rivalry with Beijing. The plan is centered around investing federal money into cutting-edge technologies and innovations to bolster the nation’s industrial, technological and military strength. The measure passed 64 to 33, with 17 Republicans voting in favor. The legislation will next be considered by the House, where it is expected to pass with some Republican support. President Biden, who has backed the package for more than a year, could sign it into law as early as this week. The bill, a convergence of economic and national security policy, would provide $52 billion in subsidies and additional tax credits to companies that manufacture chips in the United States. It also would add $200 billion for scientific research, especially into artificial intelligence, robotics, quantum computing and a variety of other technologies.

U.S. House lawmakers are delaying consideration of a bipartisan bill to curb potential risks posed by so-called stablecoins, according to people familiar with the matter, pushing back a vote on the measure for at least several weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported. The potential deal would have marked the first significant step to apply tougher rules on the cryptocurrency industry, which developed with virtually no regulation. Biden administration officials and a bipartisan group of lawmakers worry that current laws don’t provide comprehensive standards for the new assets and have warned of potential risks to financial stability posed by stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency intended to be pegged to the dollar or another national currency. Lawmakers working on the potential deal between House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), the top Republican on the panel, were unable to complete work on the draft bill ahead of a planned committee vote tentatively set for Wednesday. Lawmakers and their staff had worked through the weekend trying to hammer out remaining policy issues with the legislation, which top Biden administration officials have pushed for. As of Monday morning, however, the bill wasn’t finished and at least some core issues remained outstanding. Those issues include standards around so-called custodial wallets. Treasury officials pushed for wallet provisions that Republicans were uncomfortable with, the person said. Treasury officials have provided assistance with the drafting of the bill but haven’t yet endorsed it. That likely delays consideration of the package until at least September, when Congress is expected to return from its late-summer break.