Biden signs order on cryptocurrency as its use explodes
Biden’s top economic and national security adviser said the order establishes the first comprehensive federal digital assets strategy for the United States.
Federal Government
Articles
Biden’s inflation plan upends thinking on jobs sent overseas
Critics see this new Biden effort as largely an attempt at political damage control, rather than a data-driven approach to reducing inflation.
Congress passes bill to shore up Postal Service, delivery
Congress mustered rare bipartisan support for the Postal Service package, dropping some of the more controversial proposals to settle on core ways to save the service and ensure its future operations.
U.S. banning Russian oil imports as Biden warns of ‘costs’
The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. hit a record $4.17 Tuesday, rising by 10 cents in one day, and up 55 cents since last week, according to auto club AAA.
Biden executive order on cryptocurrency expected this week
President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order on cryptocurrency this week that will mark the first step toward regulating how digital currency is traded.
Public transit systems getting $3.7B, with $51M heading to IndyGo
Agencies are expected to use the money to prop up day-to-day operations, including staffing and payroll as well as cleaning and sanitization to limit the spread of illness in public transportation.
Biden seeks $10B for aid to Ukraine, $22.5B for coronavirus
The Biden administration is seeking more funds to help protect Ukraine against the Russian invasion and to cover coronavirus pandemic-related expenses, two major additions to budget talks already underway.
Biden pledges to make inflation battle his ‘top priority’
The president acknowledged that millions of Americans still face financial hardships, particularly as the cost of groceries, gasoline, cars and rents have skyrocketed in what has become the fastest period of inflation in four decades.
Ukrainian American Rep. Spartz takes on leading role in GOP response to Russian invasion of her home country
On Tuesday night, she will be part of the group of lawmakers who will escort President Joe Biden into the House chamber for a State of the Union address that is expected to focus heavily on the conflict happening in her home country.
UPDATE: Justices wrestle with EPA power to curb carbon emissions
The justices, in arguments Monday, are taking up an appeal from 19 mostly Republican-led states and coal companies over the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to limit carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
Nearly half of 500M free COVID tests for public still unclaimed
On the first day of the White House test giveaway in January, COVIDtests.gov received over 45 million orders. Now officials say fewer than 100,000 orders a day are coming in.
CDC to significantly ease pandemic mask guidelines
The new policy comes as the Biden administration moves to shift its focus to preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19, rather than all instances of infection, as part of a strategy adjustment for a new “phase” in the response as the virus becomes endemic.
Treasury: Most COVID rental aid went to low-income residents
The Treasury found that more than 40% of tenants getting help were Black and two-thirds of recipients were female-headed households.
Restaurants seek more federal help after SBA fund runs out of cash
Restaurant owners want Congress to replenish the fund, and they want Indiana’s senators to sign on to a proposal that would provide cash to original applicants who were left high and dry.
U.S. Senate sends Biden bill averting federal shutdown
The Senate gave final approval Thursday to legislation averting a weekend government shutdown, sending President Joe Biden a measure designed to give bipartisan bargainers more time to reach an overdue deal financing federal agencies until fall.
Biden: Infrastructure plan gives $1B for Great Lakes cleanup
Long-delayed cleanup of Great Lakes harbors and tributary rivers fouled with industrial toxins will accelerate dramatically with the $1 billion boost, senior administration officials say.
Indiana Rep. Banks facing ‘insurrection’ ballot challenge
The challenge was filed by a long-shot Democratic candidate for Banks’ congressional seat and likely has little chance of success when it goes before the state election commission on Friday, a former longtime commission member said.
White House, Dems eye pause of gas tax as prices soar, election looms
The early deliberations come days after a group of vulnerable Senate Democrats introduced a bill that would suspend the gas tax of roughly 18 cents per gallon for the rest of the year.
White House seeks another $30 billion for COVID-19 battle
According to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Congress has already approved $5.8 trillion to battle the pandemic in a series of major bills spanning the Trump and Biden administrations.
Landlords finding ways to evict after getting rental aid
The National Housing Law Project, in a survey last fall of nearly 120 legal aid attorneys and civil rights advocates, found that 86% of respondents reported cases in which landlords either refused to take assistance or accepted the money and still moved to evict tenants.