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House GOP moves to combine central bank digital currency ban with crypto bill

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House Republicans are gearing up to retroactively combine GOP legislation that would ban the Federal Reserve from creating a central bank digital currency with a sweeping bipartisan cryptocurrency market structure bill after both bills passed the chamber separately in July.

The House is set to vote Tuesday afternoon on a procedural measure that includes a little-noticed provision that would combine the CBDC ban bill with the CLARITY Act, which would overhaul how crypto tokens are regulated. The CBDC measure, led by House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), passed the lower chamber largely along party lines in July, while the sweeping market structure bill drew support from 78 Democrats.

At the time the two measures passed the House, Republicans on the Financial Services and Agriculture committees objected to combining them on the floor. A push from GOP hard-liners to merge the two bills created a protracted standoff on the floor. The committee leaders didn’t want to jeopardize bipartisan support for the CLARITY Act in hopes of sending a message about its viability in the Senate.

To appease the hard-liners, GOP leaders vowed to include a CBDC ban in Congress’ annual must-pass defense policy bill. Though language banning a CBDC was included in the House-passed National Defense Authorization Act, few Democrats support the provision, meaning it is likely to get stripped out of the bill by the Senate. Bipartisan support is needed to pass the NDAA in the upper chamber.

A spokesperson for House Financial Services Chair French Hill said in a statement that “passing both the CLARITY Act and Anti-CBDC bill were key priorities for members of the House.”

“By combining both measures and sending them to the Senate, the House continues to advance both priorities,” said the spokesperson, Brooke Nethercott. “We stand ready to work with [Banking Chair Tim Scott] and Senator [Cynthia] Lummis on a pathway forward to get both provisions signed into law.”

The move may ultimately prove to be symbolic: The Senate is gearing up to advance its own market structure bill that will need buy-in from some Democrats. Instead of taking up the CLARITY Act, the House’s title, senators appear to be gearing up to advance their own, separate version of the bill called the Responsible Financial Innovation Act.

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Congress

House again votes to surrender tariff powers to Trump

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House Republicans voted in near lockstep Tuesday to again cede congressional power over tariffs to President Donald Trump.

A measure that effectively blocks challenges to Trump’s sweeping global tariff declarations through March 2026 was adopted on a 213-211 vote. The vote was gaveled down only after GOP whips had a drawn-out struggle on the floor with a band of Republicans who initially opposed the legislation before flipping to yes. The vote was held open for more than a half-hour as they worked to bring the members back on board.

Three Republicans — Reps. Kevin Kiley of California, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Victoria Spartz of Indiana — ended up joining Democrats to oppose the measure, a “rule” which also teed up several D.C.-related criminal justice bills for debate.

“I think this is a misuse of what rules are for, and I think it’s bad for the representative process,” Kiley said of the tariff provisions.

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Congress

Adam Schiff and Kash Patel get into a shouting match

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The yearslong feud between longtime political rivals Adam Schiff and Kash Patel reached a fever pitch Tuesday afternoon, complete with a shouting match that briefly derailed an ongoing Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

The confrontation occurred when Schiff, a Democratic senator from California, questioned Patel, the FBI director, about the Justice Department’s decision to move Ghislaine Maxwell — an associate of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — to a lower security prison facility.

Schiff asked Patel whether he believed the American people were “stupid” enough to believe his answer that the Bureau of Prisons independently made the decision to move Maxwell, rather than it being a politically-motivated move by the White House.

“What I am doing is protecting this country … and combating the weaponization of intelligence by the likes of you,” Patel said, interrupting Schiff. “We have countlessly proven you to be a liar in Russiangate, in January 6. You are the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States Senate.”

Patel went on to call him “a political buffoon at best.”

The animosity between the two men dates back, at least, to Schiff’s time as chair of the House Intelligence Committee, where he led the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Patel, then a House Intelligence staffer, was tasked with working to discredit the probe.

Five years later, Schiff served on a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol; Patel, meanwhile, was an advocate for many of the incarcerated rioters.

Years later, in the lead-up to Patel’s confirmation to lead the FBI, Senate Judiciary Democrats pointed to the fact that Patel reposted a meme on social media that featured the likeness of Patel taking a chainsaw to Schiff’s head. Another photo shared by Democrats showed an image of Patel appearing to hold an object with Schiff’s face beside a catapult.

More recently, Patel has accused Schiff of moving to leak incriminating information about President Donald Trump while Intelligence Committee chair. Schiff, through a spokesperson, has denied the claims.

As the shouting on Tuesday continued, Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Judiciary panel, pleaded with chair Chuck Grassley to take control of the situation. Grassley pounded his gavel repeatedly, saying, “Both of you be quiet.”

It was perhaps the most heated moment of the questioning on Tuesday, during which Patel was pressed on his handling of the Epstein matter and the investigation into the assassination of conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk, among other topics.

But it was not the first explosive exchange of the day. Patel also tangled with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who told the FBI director, “I think you’re not gonna be around long” — a suggestion Trump would eventually turn on him.

That comment set off a similar shouting match in which Patel called Booker “an embarrassment to your country” and Booker shouted back, “I’m not afraid of you.”

In a social media post after the conclusion of the hearing, Schiff contended that Patel went before lawmakers to “save his job” and argued he was “performing for an audience of one.” The White House, meanwhile, congratulated Patel for going after “Pencil Neck” — the president’s nickname for Schiff.

Patel will go before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

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Top Democrats blast House stopgap proposal

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Democratic leaders signaled Tuesday they will oppose the GOP-led stopgap funding bill just hours after it was unveiled — and just two weeks before a possible government shutdown.

“The House Republican-only spending bill fails to meet the needs of the American people and does nothing to stop the looming healthcare crisis,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a joint statement. “At a time when families are already being squeezed by higher costs, Republicans refuse to stop Americans from facing double-digit hikes in their health insurance premiums.”

House GOP leaders are teeing up the legislation to extend government funding by seven weeks for a vote later this week. Democrats are under immense pressure from their base to mount a resistance to Blue Light News GOP’s funding moves, and while party leaders have decided to rally around health care, they have not laid out specific demands except to demand Republicans negotiate.

In a separate statement, the two top Democratic appropriators, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), said Tuesday that Republican leaders abandoned bipartisan talks on a spending stopgap that would include three full-year funding bills.

“We stand ready to continue down this path that would give us time to complete full-year bills, if Speaker [Mike] Johnson backs away from this partisan move,” Murray and DeLauro said Tuesday. “House Republican leadership has walked away from negotiations and are now threatening a shutdown by trying to jam through a funding bill on their terms alone.”

Johnson said on a brief interview Tuesday there was “no reason” for Democrats to block the stopgap “because it’s clean and short-term — it’s not a partisan exercise.”

Asked if Republicans would allow a shutdown if Senate Democrats block the measure, or if Republicans would then work on a backup plan to keep the government open, Johnson replied: “We’re gonna see what happens.”

Meredith Lee Hill and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.

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