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Lawmakers in one of the most liberal tax havens in the United States are pressing to end a key tenet of financial secrecy by requiring the owners of highly confidential trusts to identify themselves, the Washington Post reported. The proposal in Alaska is part of a growing push to stop the flow of undisclosed money into the United States, which has for years drawn international wealth through state laws that provide anonymity for the owners of trusts, limited liability companies and other financial arrangements. New York and Wyoming are also weighing reforms and, at the federal level, the bipartisan Enablers Act would for the first time require trust companies, registered agents and others to scrutinize clients and report suspicious transactions.

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly backed legislation today that would remove "most favored nation" trade status for Russia and its close ally Belarus over the invasion of Ukraine, allowing for higher tariffs on imports from the two countries, Reuters reported. As voting continued, the tally in the 100-member Senate was 65-0 in favor of the measure removing Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status. Russia calls the assault a "special military operation." Senate approval will send the measure to the House of Representatives, where passage was expected later today, sending the legislation to the White House for President Joe Biden to sign into law. The House passed the legislation last month, but it stalled in the Senate as Democrats and Republicans disagreed over whether to also consider legislation codifying Biden's executive order banning Russian energy imports. The House must reconsider the bill because of changes made in the Senate. Some senators also had disagreed over language in a provision in the trade bill reauthorizing the Magnitsky Act, a law that allows sanctions over human rights violations. Senators announced a compromise late on Wednesday in which they agreed to first consider the trade measure and later the energy bill on Thursday.

Congressional negotiators are slated to announce a deal for $10 billion in additional funding for the U.S. Covid response, but were unable to agree on global aid and dropped it from the agreement, the Washington Post reported. The package would enable U.S. officials to purchase more therapeutics, tests, vaccines and other supplies, after the White House repeatedly warned that it needed new funding for those things. But it includes no money for the global response, which Biden officials have said is critical to protect Americans from the emergence of new, potentially dangerous variants in other parts of the world that would likely make their way to the United States. Senate negotiators, including Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.), were seeking a compromise with Democrats, after lawmakers could not agree on a $15 billion package that would have included about $10 billion in domestic funding and $5 billion for the international response. The deal set to be announced Monday is expected to repurpose funding from previous stimulus packages, lawmakers said last week.

The House might vote this week on a small-business pandemic aid package that would provide $42 billion for additional restaurant relief and $13 billion for other “hard hit” industries, Roll Call reported. The Rules Committee is scheduled to meet on the revised bill Tuesday afternoon, which indicates floor action soon after. Democratic leaders are whipping the bill to see if there are enough votes to pass it, according to a source familiar with the planning who wasn't authorized to speak publicly. The restaurant and hard-hit business grant funding would be offset by “all funds rescinded, seized, reclaimed, or otherwise returned” from various programs in prior pandemic relief laws. It was not immediately clear if that would score as a full or partial offset for the $55 billion in total funding. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) said on Friday that he has been working with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for months to provide additional aid to restaurants and other small businesses that were not able to access previous pandemic relief programs. Speaking a few hours before the bill was released, Phillips said that he was hopeful for a vote and that there would be bipartisan support given the measure is offset with recaptured fraudulent awards.

U.S. Senate negotiators on Thursday were nearing a deal on a $10 billion COVID-19 bill to help the federal government acquire more vaccines and medical supplies as it prepares for future variants of the virus that has upended American life, Reuters reported. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that senators were "close to a final agreement" on a bill aiming to shore up stockpiles to be used both domestically and internationally. If a deal is finalized in the coming days, the Senate might be able to pass the bill and send it to the House of Representatives before the start of a spring recess at the end of next week. The amount is a tiny fraction of the $4.6 trillion Congress has approved since early 2020 to fight the virus, much of which was devoted to offsetting its heavy economic hit. Early this month, Congress failed to pass a $15.6 billion relief bill amid Republican opposition to new federal spending. Many Democrats, meanwhile, rebelled against taking back some money earmarked to help state and local governments in order to pay for the new round of coronavirus relief.