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So yeah, I’m proud of it,” McConnell said, hailing it as an “extremely important” win for conservatives. He said it’ll mean they no longer “pay a ransom on the domestic side” in order to secure hefty military spending. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill.. said he’s “disappointed” in the unequal spending levels but argued that the Kentucky Republican was using his leverage. Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks alongside Sens. Democrats say McConnell was pushing for deals due to the rising support in the Democratic Party in recent years to end the filibuster.

If it is signed into law, the omnibus bill would address the summer food gap low-income families face in two ways. It would permit “grab-and-go” free summer meals to be distributed in rural communities as part of the nationwide Summer Food Service Program, expanding access for more children in need. The Summer EBT program would start in 2024. And so having options like Summer EBT, having options like grab-and-go, other noncongregate options, is the way to be able to do that.”The summer nutrition program expansions in the bill were championed by Sens. "We know too often children who are able to get healthy meals in school go hungry during the summer.

☆ Congress considers crypto consumer protection bill that Sam Bankman-Fried backed before FTX collapse
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The shocking collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX has increased the urgency in Congress to understand what went wrong and pass legislation to try to prevent another debacle that would affect hundreds of thousands of investors. One bill, the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, introduced in August, gives the Commodity Futures Trading Commission more authority to regulate digital commodities like FTX. The bill arrived before FTX's collapse ignited fresh debate over how to protect consumers in the relatively young and untamed crypto industry. Bankman-Fried was charged in a U.S. indictment with eight criminal counts: conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, individual charges of securities fraud and wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to avoid campaign finance regulations. Nor does it make the CFTC the 'primary' crypto regulator," Stabenow said during an agriculture committee hearing Dec. 1.

2 Democrat, told CNN when asked if party leaders should stay out of the race. “I’m just not worried about folks who may not like this approach,” Sinema told CNN on Thursday. On Monday, he wouldn’t say if he believes Democratic leaders should try to knock her off in 2024. Like Sinema, party leaders are now watching Manchin closely as he weighs whether to run in 2024. “I worked very closely with Sen. Sinema – two years now to get stuff done,” Kelly said.

☆ Biden administration announces $2.5 billion loan to help GM and LG make EV batteries
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Ella Nilsen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —The US Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office will announce Monday that it is issuing a $2.5 billion loan to help start three lithium battery manufacturing hubs in Ohio, Tennessee and Michigan. The DOE loan programs office will loan the money to Ultium Cells LLC, a joint venture of General Motors and South Korean battery manufacturer LG Energy Solutions making batteries to power electric vehicles. In order to take advantage of a federal EV tax subsidy in the Inflation Reduction Act, electric vehicles and much of their battery components be sourced, processed and assembled in North America. LG Energy Solutions is also set to partner with Japanese automaker Honda on a $3.5 billion joint venture battery factory in southern Ohio. The Warren, Ohio, Ultium facility will be represented by the United Auto Workers, after the plant voted to unionize on Friday.

☆ Ohio workers vote to unionize GM, LG battery plant
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The Detroit Three automakers all have battery plants in the works with South Korean partners. The UAW petitioned in October to represent about 900 workers at the Ohio plant after a majority of employees signed cards authorizing the union to represent them. Production began in August at the Ohio plant, the first of at least four planned Ultium U.S. battery factories. GM and LG Energy are considering an Indiana site for a fourth U.S. battery plant. Last week, GM Chief Executive Mary Barra expressed support for unionizing the Ohio plant.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried gave $2.5 million to a leading political ethics watchdog. The group says it can't give the money back because officials already spent it.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Dave Levinthal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

The Campaign Legal Center fights against lawlessness and unethical behavior in politics. Brendan Quinn, a spokesperson for the Campaign Legal Center, says the nonprofit organization cannot return or give away Bankman-Fried's money because the money is already spent. Asked whether the Campaign Legal Center would consider disgorging an amount of money equivalent to what Bankman-Fried contributed, Quinn noted that the Campaign Legal Center is not a political candidate or committee. The Campaign Legal Center has not yet provided Insider a copy, first requested December 2, of the most recent IRS 990 tax document filed by Campaign Legal Center Action, its advocacy arm. Former President Donald Trump has been a frequent target of the Campaign Legal Center's legal and ethics efforts.

The answer is simple, according to more than a dozen Washington insiders, FTX employees, and crypto industry observers who spoke with Insider. I don't think anyone believed that he was going to fund candidates who were, quote unquote, committed to ending pandemics who were also hostile to the crypto industry." Alex Wong/Getty ImagesRebuffed by the SEC, Bankman-Fried turned his attention to Congress. "It's not that he was welcoming regulation," says the senior figure in the crypto industry who attended meetings with Bankman-Fried. But while Bankman-Fried was busy wooing Washington, FTX was about to become Exhibit A in the case for more effective oversight of the crypto industry.

Democratic leaders in New Hampshire and Iowa quickly responded that they plan to ignore the DNC, follow state law and hold their nominations as planned. A New Hampshire law explicitly sets the state's primary date ahead of any DNC calendar. The changes could ease Biden's path to re-election by reshuffling the calendar to favor states that supported his nomination, in particular South Carolina. Biden's 2020 presidential campaign was struggling until he won South Carolina and went on to gain the party's nomination. "Joe Biden's political career was defined when South Carolina Democrats essentially handed him the Democratic Party nomination and the presidency," said Scala.

☆ FTX Collapse Draws Senate Hearing Scrutiny as Crypto Oversight in Focus
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Dave Michaels | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—Senators with a plan to regulate cryptocurrencies are due to question the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s chairman about the failure of the digital-asset exchange FTX and on legislation that would give that agency more power over the volatile market. CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam is scheduled to testify at Thursday’s hearing of the Senate Agriculture Committee. The panel’s chairwoman, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.), and its ranking member, Sen. John Boozman (R., Ark. ), introduced a bill that would regulate trading in bitcoin, ether and some other cryptocurrencies through the commission. Giving the CFTC, a relatively small agency, authority to police trading in the most valuable crypto assets would mark a substantial expansion of its authority.

☆ U.S. CFTC chair to be questioned over FTX collapse by lawmakers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Hannah Lang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The hearing, entitled "Lessons Learned From the FTX Collapse, and the Need for Congressional Action", will take place at 10am Eastern Time (1500 GMT). The committee, which oversees the CFTC, could also press Behnam on meetings between the commodities regulator and FTX staff, including founder Sam Bankman-Fried. The CFTC had “many meetings” with FTX over its application to directly clear customer trades, Behnam said Monday at a Financial Times event. Offices for Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the Democratic chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, along with its Republican ranking member Sen. John Boozman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Many Senate Agriculture Committee members have previously agreed with Behnam that the CFTC should take on a larger role.

☆ Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried met with top officials at the CFTC more than 10 times over the past 14 months, says chairman Rostin Behnam
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON — The founder and former CEO of failed cryptocurrency exchange Sam Bankman-Fried met with high-level officials at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission more than 10 times over the past 14 months, including with CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam. The proposed change was still pending approval by the time FTX filed for bankruptcy earlier this month. Over the past 14 months, we met 10 times in the CFTC office at their request all in relation to this (derivatives clearing organization); this clearinghouse application," Behnam told committee chair Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. Later in the hearing, Behnam told Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., that emails were also exchanged between the parties. And I felt I needed to be engaged as the chairman of the agency that met directly with FTX and Mr.

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File PhotoNEW YORK, Dec 1 (Reuters Breakingviews) - A congressional grilling on cryptocurrency answered a lot of questions, but far more about the ignorance on Capitol Hill than digital currencies. More bizarrely, Roger Marshall, also a Republican, suggested a “pause in this cryptocurrency digital world” while Congress gets its “arms around it,” a process he said could take years. Marshall also referenced central bank digital currencies, but those will fall under the U.S. Federal Reserve’s purview if the central bank approves such a project. Bitcoin has been around for more than a decade, however, and Congress has failed to craft relevant laws to oversee crypto. The hearing was the first of several planned to examine FTX’s bankruptcy, cryptocurrency regulation, and agency jurisdiction over digital assets.

☆ U.S. Senate to hold FTX hearing on Dec. 1, CFTC chairman to testify
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee on Thursday said it will hold a hearing on Dec. 1 to examine the sudden collapse of FTX, one of the world's biggest crypto exchanges. FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, leaving an estimated 1 million customers and other investors facing billions of dollars in total losses. Rostin Behnam, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is the first witness named for the hearing, titled, "Why Congress Needs to Act: Lessons Learned from the FTX Collapse." U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow also on Thursday called on Congress to pass the bipartisan Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, which she said, "would have prohibited the misconduct and risky behavior undertaken by FTX." The U.S. House Financial Services Committee has also said it plans to hold a hearing in December to investigate FTX's collapse.

The House agriculture committee will likely be led starting in January by Glenn "GT" Thompson of Pennsylvania. The farm bill has a historical reputation of bipartisanship, so some advocates told Reuters they are warily optimistic. Passage of the 2014 farm bill was held up more than a year as conservative House Republicans tried unsuccessfully to strip the bill of nutrition programs. Every Republican member of the House agriculture committee signed a letter calling the funding “abusive and troublesome." At an August farm conference in Iowa, Thompson said if he led the agriculture committee, he would "ensure that the farm bill doesn't become a climate bill."

☆ U.S. House committee to hold hearing on collapse of FTX
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. House Financial Services Committee said Wednesday it plans to hold a hearing in December to investigate the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The committee said it expects to hear from the companies and individuals involved, including FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, Alameda Research, Binance, FTX and related entities, among others. House Financial Services committee top Republican Patrick McHenry said "we must get to the bottom of this for FTX’s customers and the American people. It’s essential that we hold bad actors accountable so responsible players can harness technology to build a more inclusive financial system." Last week, U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee chair Debbie Stabenow said Congress needs to pass legislation after the FTX collapse.

☆ U.S. senator urges legislation after FTX collapse
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee chair Debbie Stabenow said on Thursday the U.S. Congress needs to pass legislation in the wake of the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The Committee, remains committed to advancing the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act to bring necessary safeguards to the digital commodities market," Stabenow said. She added that she is working with the panel's top Republican John Boozman, financial regulators and others "to finalize and prepare this legislation for a committee vote." Earlier on Thursday Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown said it is critical that U.S. financial agencies investigate what led to the FTX collapse. "Until legislation is enacted, I encourage all financial regulators to use their current authorities to the fullest extent to regulate and prosecute misconduct in these markets," Stabenow said.

☆ Explainer: Crypto industry spends millions on U.S. midterm elections
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Hannah Lang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Crypto companies are eager to back industry-friendly political candidates. The election comes at a time of turmoil for the crypto industry. FTX's CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has far outspent all others in the crypto industry. WHAT IS THE CRYPTO INDUSTRY LOOKING TO GET IN RETURN? Crypto companies such as Circle want lawmakers to create a framework for stablecoins to help mature the industry and codify consumer protections.

☆ Republican John James faces off against Democrat Carl Marlinga in Michigan's 10th Congressional District election
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Hanna Kang | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Republican John James is running against Democrat Carl Marlinga in Michigan's 10th Congressional District. The 10th District is centered around southern Macomb County. Michigan's 10th Congressional District candidatesJames is a businessman who graduated from West Point and served eight years in the Army, participating in multiple tours in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Marlinga, James' opponent, is a former judge on Michigan's 16th Judicial Circuit Court and Probate Court. Voting history for Michigan's 10th Congressional DistrictMichigan's 10th Congressional District is centered around southern Macomb County, long been considered as the state's bellwether, and home to the state's third and fourth largest cities, Warren and Sterling Heights.

“They broke their promise to Black farmers and other farmers of color,” John Boyd, a plaintiff and the president of the National Black Farmers Association, told NBC News on Wednesday just before he held a press conference on the matter. John Boyd, president of the Black Farmers Association, plants winter wheat in one of his fields in Baskerville, Va., on Jan. 8, 2019. The $4 billion was never delivered to Black farmers and other people of color, however. The new legislation aims to circumvent white farmers’ grievances and create two new funds while nixing the initial relief program. In 1920, there were more than 925,000 Black farmers in the U.S., making up about 14% of the farmer population, according to data analysis by the consulting firm McKinsey.

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