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House lawmakers tore into top U.S. bank regulators Wednesday, questioning their competency and saying examiners were asleep at the wheel, at a second day of congressional hearings this week about how Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed practically overnight on March 10 and March 12. "We need competent financial supervisors, but Congress can't legislate competence," House Financial Services chairman Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., told top officials at the Federal Reserve, Treasury and FDIC at the beginning the hearing. "The light touch cautions from the Fed to SVB management are clearly not what Congress intended for bank supervision," said Waters. Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga, Mich., demanded raw, confidential supervisory information about the banks, available to regulators ahead of the collapses. Members of the Republican majority House challenged many of the decisions made by regulators in the hours and days after SVB collapsed and Signature Bank followed 48 hours later.

The nation's top bank regulators will face tough questions for the first time Tuesday about how Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed practically overnight earlier this month. This allowed the FDIC to guarantee hundreds of billions of dollars in uninsured deposits at the banks, money that might otherwise have been wiped out. Both Republicans and Democrats on the 29-member panel questioned whether these deposit guarantees amounted to a government bailout for rich account holders. "One clear takeaway from recent events is that heavy reliance on uninsured deposits creates liquidity risks that are extremely difficult to manage," the FDIC's Gruenberg said in his written testimony. "Particularly in today's environment where money can flow out of institutions with incredible speed in response to news amplified through social media channels."

☆ Watch live: TikTok CEO testifies before House committee as potential U.S. ban looms
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

TikTok has touted a complex plan known as Project Texas to help ease U.S. concerns over its ownership. After two years of negotiations with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, the White House reportedly demanded last week that ByteDance sell TikTok. On Thursday, a Chinese commerce ministry spokeswoman said, "If the news is true, China will resolutely oppose it." TikTok became a viral sensation in the U.S. by allowing young people to create and share short videos. But the company announced this week that it has 150 million users in the United States, a figure that, if confirmed, amounts to nearly 60% of the population.

☆ Yellen says Treasury is ready to take 'additional actions if warranted' to stabilize banks
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday that the federal emergency actions to back up Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank customers could be deployed again in the future if necessary. And they are tools we could use again," Yellen said in written testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee. Certainly, we would be prepared to take additional actions if warranted," she added. In Washington, Yellen has drawn criticism from lawmakers who argue that the decision to insure deposits at SVB and Signature amounted to a reward for big banks that took excessive risks. Last week, Yellen said uninsured deposits would only be covered in the event that a "failure to protect uninsured depositors would create systemic risk and significant economic and financial consequences."

☆ Treasury will do whatever it takes to ensure 'savings remain safe,' Yellen tells senators
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury testifies before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services March 22, 2023 in Washington, DC. WASHINGTON — Federal bank regulators are prepared to do whatever is needed to "ensure that depositors' savings remain safe" in U.S. banks, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. These actions included guarantees on uninsured deposits at the failed banks, and the creation of new liquidity sources for smaller banks experiencing a rush of withdrawals. Thanks in large part to these actions, "aggregate deposit outflows from regional banks have stabilized," Yellen told a bankers group Tuesday. Yellen and her deputies have so far said any blanket guarantee of uninsured deposits would require extraordinary circumstances, and likely an act of Congress.

☆ Republicans request Fed and FDIC oversight records for failed Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Federal Reserve also created a Bank Term Funding Program aimed at safeguarding institutions affected by the market instability of the bank failures. In the days following the collapse, reports have emerged indicating that Silicon Valley Bank ignored repeated warnings from bank regulators that the bank would be at risk of collapse in the event that interest rates rose quickly. In it, Brown suggested that responsibility for the bank failures lay in part with top executives at the failed banks. Brown also asked the regulators to "identify and close regulatory gaps, shortfalls, or failures by state or federal regulators that contributed to the banks' failures." He did not ask for the names of individual Fed or FDIC officials involved in supervising the banks.

☆ Fed loans, account guarantees helped stabilize 'deposit flows' at regional banks, Treasury official says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Following the collapse of California-based Silicon Valley Bank and New York-based Signature bank last Friday and Sunday, respectively, regulators announced a series of emergency measures to stabilize the nation's banking system. "It will take time for markets to catch up with the actions that have been taken by us and by these banks," Adeyemo said on CNBC's " Squawk on the Street ." The result of the actions was a dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of numerous banks, said Adeyemo. That included banks that had anticipated potential mass withdrawals, and pledged collateral ahead of time expecting to need emergency loans. "Are all uninsured depositors in the U.S. banking system protected right now?"

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sought to reassure markets and lawmakers on Thursday that the federal government is committed to protecting U.S. bank deposits following the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank over the weekend. "Our banking system remains sound and Americans can feel confident that their deposits will be there when they need them," Yellen said. Yellen has been at the center of emergency federal efforts this past week to return deposits to account holders at two failed banks, the California-based Silicon Valley Bank and the crypto-heavy Signature Bank, based in New York. "This week's actions demonstrate our resolute commitment to ensure that depositors' savings remain safe," Yellen told the senators. "I'm concerned about the precedent of guaranteeing all deposits and the market expectation moving forward," said Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho.

☆ Warren unveils bill to repeal Trump-era bank deregulation she says led to SVB, Signature collapses
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks to reporters about codifying gay marriage on Capitol Hill in Washington, September 15, 2022. WASHINGTON — A group of Democratic senators introduced new legislation Tuesday to repeal Trump-era bank deregulations they say created the conditions that allowed for the dramatic collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the closure of Signature Bank since Friday. Right away, mid-sized banks, including SVB, began lobbying Congress for an exemption from the tighter oversight rule. On the Senate floor Tuesday, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mass., drew a straight line from the 2018 deregulation effort to the 2023 failure of SVB and Signature. "The weakened rules permitted banks like SVB and Signature to load up on risks, run up their profits, pay their executives, giant bonuses, and eventually blow the banks to pieces," said Warren.

☆ Wall Street — not taxpayers — will pay for the SVB and Signature deposit relief plans
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON — Plans announced Sunday to fully reimburse deposits made in the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank and the shuttered Signature Bank will rely on Wall Street and large financial institutions — not taxpayers — to foot the bill, Treasury officials said. The DIF currently has over $100 billion in it, a sum the Treasury official said was "more than fully sufficient" to cover SVB and Signature depositors. To that end, federal officials strongly pushed back on the idea that the plans for SVB and Signature constituted a "bailout." Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., insisted that "If there is a bailout of Silicon Valley Bank, it must be 100 percent financed by Wall Street and large financial institutions." On Sunday afternoon, Treasury approved of plans that would unwind both SVB and Signature Bank, based in New York, "in a manner that fully protects all depositors."

☆ House conservatives issue new list of demands that could upend debt ceiling talks
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON — A powerful bloc of U.S. House conservatives on Friday issued new demands that they said must be met before they would agree to vote to raise the debt ceiling. The demands go well beyond what other House Republicans have said they want, and threaten to upend talks later this year on a vote to raise the debt ceiling, currently set at $31.4 trillion. But he has left open the possibility of winning support in the House for a debt ceiling hike through negotiations on next year's federal budget. The 182-page document is widely viewed as the White House's opening salvo in the debate with House Republicans. House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Jody Arrington, R-Texas, said Friday at the Ways and Means hearing that his committee's budget process had been delayed by the administration's timing.

☆ Biden's budget recycles tax hikes that failed to pass when Democrats controlled Congress
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration's 2024 budget relies almost entirely on additional revenue created by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans and corporations and by letting the Trump-era tax cuts expire. The top individual income tax bracket would rise to 39.6%, and a new global minimum tax would seek to collect levies on income earned overseas. The budget would also close what the White House calls "Medicare tax loopholes" in order to make the Medicare Trust Fund solvent for more than two decades. But it was unclear Thursday whether any of Biden's tax proposals might win enough Democrats and Republicans to become law. Biden's 2024 reelection campaign, which could be announced in the coming weeks, looms large over the 2024 budget tax proposals — many of which were popular with Democratic voters when he ran in 2020.

Principal Deputy IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel testifies before the House Small Business Committee at a hearing on "The Internal Revenue Service And Small Businesses: Ensuring Fair Treatment" in Washington, July 17, 2013. One of Werfel's priorities at the IRS will be ensuring that the wealthiest Americans pay their full tax bills. President Joe Biden's pick to lead the IRS won the support of nearly every Senate Democrat, plus a handful of Republicans. "Confirming someone as qualified as Mr. Werfel as IRS Commissioner is crucial to making sure Americans take full advantage of all the tax credits we approved last year," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday on the Senate floor. He later served as acting IRS commissioner in 2013.

The six countries included in the bill are China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba, Warner said. "This competition with China around who dominates technology domains, that really is where the nexus of national security lies going forward," Warner said. Warner said the bill is not solely meant to address TikTok, and rather should create a "systemic approach" that prevents the need for one-off actions. "A U.S. ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide. We hope that Congress will explore solutions to their national security concerns that won't have the effect of censoring the voices of millions of Americans."

The White House threw its support behind a new bipartisan Senate bill on Tuesday that would give the Biden administration the power to ban TikTok in the U.S. The White House issued a statement publicly endorsing the bill while Warner was briefing reporters. Sullivan's statement marks the first time a TikTok bill in Congress has received the explicit backing of the Biden administration, and it catapulted Warner's bill to the top of a growing list of congressional proposals to ban TikTok. As of Tuesday, Warner's legislation did not yet have a companion version in the House. "The RESTRICT Act is more than about TikTok," Warner told reporters "It will give us that comprehensive approach."

☆ NTSB opens special investigation into Norfolk Southern safety practices
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Noah Sheidlower | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday said it opened a special investigation into Norfolk Southern after recent derailments. Norfolk Southern didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the NTSB probe. "When we walk out of there, I want to make sure that Norfolk Southern is doing what they need to do to make this right. On Saturday, another Norfolk Southern train derailed near Springfield, Ohio. The NTSB has launched investigations into five accidents involving Norfolk Southern, including the death of a Norfolk Southern conductor Tuesday morning in Cleveland after a dump truck collided with a train at a steel facility.

☆ New bipartisan Senate TikTok bill will be unveiled Tuesday
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Pictured here is the TikTok download page on an Apple iPhone on August 7, 2020. WASHINGTON — A highly anticipated bipartisan Senate bill to give the president the authority to respond to threats posed by TikTok and companies like it will be unveiled Tuesday afternoon by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, a committee spokeswoman told CNBC. "TikTok is one of the potentials," that could be targeted by the bill, Warner said. Warner's bill comes nearly a week after the House Foreign Affairs Committee advanced a Republican-sponsored bill that aims to do much of the same thing. The House legislation passed the GOP-controlled committee 24-16 along party lines, with unanimous GOP support and no Democratic votes.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted Wednesday to advance a bill that would grant President Joe Biden the authority to ban TikTok, the Chinese social media app used by more than 100 million Americans. Yet even as Democrats objected, many of them said they did so regretfully, and they would have much preferred to support a version of McCaul's TikTok ban. "My bill empowers the administration to ban TikTok or any other software application that threatens U.S. national security." "It would be unfortunate if the House Foreign Affairs Committee were to censor millions of Americans," TikTok spokeswoman Brooke Oberwetter told CNBC in an email Monday. On Monday, the Biden administration released new implementation rules for a TikTok ban that applies only to federal government-owned devices, which was passed by Congress in December.

☆ Senate overturns federal rule on ESG investments, Biden vows to veto
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) talks to reporters during a news conference following the weekly Senate Republican policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday voted to overturn a Labor Department rule that permits fiduciary retirement fund managers to consider climate change and other factors when making investments on behalf of pension plan participants. The final vote in the Senate was 50-46, with two Democratic senators crossing party lines to support the repeal bill: West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and Montana Sen. Jon Tester. President Joe Biden said Monday that he will veto the Senate bill if it comes to his desk — the first veto of his presidency. ESG funds are designed to attract socially conscious investors with stock picks that promote renewable energy, inclusive policies, or good corporate governance.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee plans to take up legislation Tuesday that would give President Joe Biden the authority to ban TikTok, the Chinese social media app used by more than 100 million Americans. 1153 will effectively leap frog several other proposals to ban TikTok that were previously introduced in the House and Senate, but haven't yet advanced through the committee process. My bill empowers the administration to ban TikTok or any software applications that threaten U.S. national security," McCaul said in a statement Monday. "It would be unfortunate if the House Foreign Affairs Committee were to censor millions of Americans," TikTok spokeswoman Brooke Oberwetter told CNBC in an email Monday. At the time, ByteDance was looking to potentially spin off TikTok to keep the app from being shut down.

"We don't yet know what these three objects were, but nothing right now suggests that they were related to China's spy balloon program or that they surveillance vehicles from any other country," Biden said at the White House. "At the end of the day, their surveillance balloon was indeed in our airspace," she said. Less than a week after the spy balloon was destroyed, the first of three more objects was taken down in waters above the Arctic Ocean on Friday. The size of a small car and floating at 40,000 feet, this object was much smaller than the Chinese balloon. As of Thursday, the White House says it has recovered key surveillance technology from the Chinese balloon.

☆ Pressure mounts on Biden to publicly address aerial object shoot downs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Al Drago | ReutersWASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is coming under mounting pressure from both Democratic and Republicans senators to publicly explain why he ordered three floating objects to be shot down last weekend by American fighter jets. The orders to shoot down the three "unidentified aerial phenomena" over three days came just one week after a massive Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down Feb. 4, after floating across the United States for eight days. The first of the objects shot down this weekend was the size of a small car and floating at 40,000 feet when it was shot down over the Arctic Ocean on Friday. The second one was similar in size and altitude, but it was shot down over the Canadian Yukon on Saturday. The third floating object was slightly smaller and floating at just 20,000 feet when it was taken out over Lake Huron on Sunday.

☆ U.S. will default this summer unless Congress raises debt limit, CBO warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON — The United States Treasury will exhaust its emergency measures to prevent a debt default sometime between July and September unless Congress raises the $31.4 trillion debt limit, the Congressional Budget Office projected Wednesday. The latest projection notes that the final date will be determined by tax revenues the IRS receives in April. Should those measures be exhausted before President Joe Biden can sign off on a new debt limit passed by Congress, "the government would have to delay making payments for some activities, default on its debt obligations, or both," said Swagel. A large bloc of Republicans in the House have demanded Congress pass drastic cuts to federal spending before they will agree to vote to raise the debt limit, effectively using their leverage within the GOP to force their priorities to the front of the line. Republicans argue that the debt limit and annual federal spending are inextricably linked, the same way household debt is a product of household spending.

Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council John Kirby speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House February 13, 2023 in Washington, DC. "We have not yet been able to definitively assess what these most recent objects are," John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said at a White House briefing. Each of the three crafts was the size of a small car and was floating on prevailing winds. It was cylindrical and had been floating at around 40,000 feet in altitude, Kirby said, posing a threat to civilian aircraft. That craft was similar in size, shape and flight altitude to the one that was shot down Friday, Kirby said.

The suspected Chinese spy balloon drifts to the ocean after being shot down off the coast in Surfside Beach, South Carolina, U.S. February 4, 2023. The U.S. slapped sanctions against six Chinese aerospace companies that it said supported the Beijing's reconnaissance balloon program, adding them to a list of companies the U.S. considers a significant national security threat. We will not hesitate to use the Entity List and our other regulatory and enforcement tools to protect U.S. national security." Last weekend, a high altitude Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina. "Today's action makes clear that entities that seek to harm U.S. national security and sovereignty will be cut off from accessing U.S.

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