Congress
House Republicans shoot down possible housing-crypto trade with Senate
House Republicans are rejecting the prospect of accepting a Senate housing package in exchange for the upper chamber including a slate of community bank deregulatory bills in pending cryptocurrency legislation, dashing hopes that the trade could resolve a housing bill standoff between the two bodies.
“So our good stuff for their bad stuff — not sure I buy that,” said Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.), who serves as vice chair of the House Financial Services Committee.
Senate Banking Republicans discussed the possible trade at a closed-door meeting last week. Sen. Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican who chairs a Senate Banking subcommittee on housing, helped pitch the idea to other GOP senators. But House lawmakers say adding their bipartisan banking bills to the crypto market structure measure is not enough to get them to swallow a Senate-approved housing affordability package that they hope to amend.
“There’s other things in the housing bill that we need to look at,” said Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.), who chairs a House Financial Services subcommittee on housing.
A spokesperson for Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Scott and Senate Banking ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are pushing the House to accept their bill as-is.
The House included the community bank deregulatory measures in a housing bill it passed in February, but the provisions were left out of the housing measure that the Senate passed this month. The banking bills, which supporters say will increase access to mortgages, are a priority for House Republicans, but they say they have an array of outstanding issues with the Senate’s housing bill that need to be addressed.
“This needs to be part of a conversation,” said Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa), who sits on House Financial Services. “Simply throwing something over from the Senate and expecting everybody to get on board with a half-baked idea doesn’t get us to where we need to be.”
Rep. Andy Barr, a senior Kentucky Republican on House Financial Services who is running for Senate, indicated he likes the idea of tucking bank deregulatory measures into the crypto legislation. But, he said, “we want some of our housing ideas included, too.”
“I don’t know why they wouldn’t entertain some of our bipartisan housing ideas,” he said.
Katherine Hapgood contributed to this report.
House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington is making clear he will push for the “fraud prevention” spending cuts he wants across state and social safety net programs in order to pay for any Iran war funding in a second GOP reconciliation bill.
The Texas Republican is meeting soon this afternoon with Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in Graham’s office to discuss plans.
Sen. Ruben Gallego on Wednesday called former Attorney General Merrick Garland a “coward” over his handling of prosecuting Jan. 6 insurrectionists.
Speaking at an event with Economic Liberties, the Arizona Democrat said it “took way too damn long” to hold anyone accountable for the 2021 attack on the Capitol.
“We didn’t move fast enough in holding Jan. 6 Republicans, the president, everyone up and down the organizations that were helping out, accountable,” Gallego said, adding that he “100 percent” blames Garland for not being more aggressive.
Despite more than 1,500 people being charged with crimes for their participation in the deadly attack on the Capitol, some Democrats were displeased with Garland’s prosecution tactics.
Though Trump was eventually indicted on federal charges, some Democrats accused Garland of waiting too long to launch an investigation into Trump. Garland announced the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith in 2022, citing Trump’s reelection bid as part of his decision to begin the investigation.
“I think he was a coward, and if I could ever take down his photo from the U.S. Attorney’s office, I would gladly do it,” Gallego said of Garland. “He was willing to sacrifice our democracy for the institution of the DOJ. There is no DOJ without democracy.”
The remarks from Gallego echo his previous criticism of Garland for his handling of Jan. 6 prosecutions, including when he was still in office.
“I’m just not seeing the urgency from the attorney general,” Gallego told CNN in 2022. “He’s thinking more about protecting the institution of the Department of Justice. And I appreciate that, but he has to be thinking about protecting the institution of democracy.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats have submitted their latest proposal for pairing Department of Homeland Security funding with immigration enforcement policy changes.
“Democrats sent Republicans our counteroffer on legislation to reopen DHS, pay TSA workers, while at the same time rein in ICE with commonsense guardrails,” Schumer said, adding that the offer “contains some of the very same asks Democrats have been talking about now for months” on changes to immigration enforcement tactics.
Schumer met with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries Wednesday to discuss the funding stalemate.
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