Sam Knight - page 6

The recent wild fluctuations in the value of cryptocurrencies has the Senate Banking Committee probing potential consequences. The panel is scheduled to hold a hearing on virtual currencies early next month, committee leaders announced last week. And at a Wednesday hearing on the Bank Secrecy Act, some members voiced concerns about the use of cryptocurrencies in money laundering. Bitcoin, the most prominent of virtual currencies, saw its value explode 800 percent in the second half of last year. Roughly half of the spike occurred in… Keep Reading

President Trump’s second pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services acknowledged that he oversaw the jacking up of drug prices, as as a pharmaceutical executive. Alex Azar deflected criticism from Democrats on Tuesday, while testifying before the Senate Finance Committee. The nominee said high prices were a systemic problem, and that he wasn’t personally responsible for the trend, as the former President of Eli Lily. “I don’t know that there is any drug price of a branded product that has ever gone… Keep Reading

Congress appears poised to finally ensure that millions of kids who rely on the federal government for healthcare won’t have to depend on the legislative process for the rest of President Trump’s first term. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) touted a proposed five-year renewal of the Children’s Health Insurance Program on Thursday morning. CHIP expired in October, as Congressional Republicans scrambled to ram through landmark reductions to the corporate tax rate before the end of the year. “This month, we can set this right”… Keep Reading

A bill that would grant money to the Children’s Health Insurance Program for three months is making its way through Congress, as part of a deal to avert a government shutdown. The proposal would keep CHIP funded until March 31, 2018. The program expired in October and has not been renewed since—to much criticism from Democrats, as Republicans ate up the legislative calendar passing a major permanent tax break for corporations. House Democrats are expected to vote against the deal—a continuing resolution that would keep… Keep Reading

Senate Democrats are vowing to filibuster an impending must-pass funding bill, if it includes add-on proposals that would undermine environmental regulations. Forty-two members of the Democratic Senate Caucus say they lodge “strong opposition to any riders” included in proposed funding packages “that would gut bedrock US environmental laws.” The federal government is set–yet again–to run out of money on Friday. Forty lawmakers in the upper chamber can filibuster any bill that would keep the government open. The Democratic Senators cited several House Republican proposals that have already… Keep Reading