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  • The US economy could depend on McCarthy corralling his extremist Republican troops | CNN Politics

    The US economy could depend on McCarthy corralling his extremist Republican troops | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Millions of Americans could face massive consequences unless Speaker Kevin McCarthy can navigate out of a debt trap he has set for President Joe Biden that is instead threatening to capture his House Republicans.

    The California Republican traveled to Wall Street on Monday to deliver a fresh warning that the House GOP majority will refuse to lift a cap on government borrowing unless Biden agrees to spending cuts that would effectively neutralize his domestic agenda and neuter his White House legacy.

    McCarthy also assured traders, however, that he would never let the US government default on its obligations – a potential disaster that could halt Social Security payments, trigger a recession and unleash job cuts by the fall in the event that the debt ceiling is not raised.

    This is where the risk to Americans comes in. It’s hard to see how a rookie speaker, with a tiny majority and a conference containing plenty of extremists, can engineer either of these outcomes.

    Most countries don’t require the legislature to raise the government’s borrowing threshold. But the quirky situation in the US has made a once routine duty an opportunity for political mischief in a polarized age. Since the government spends more than it makes in revenue, it must borrow money to service its debt and pay for spending that Congress has already authorized. It has no problem getting more credit since the US pays its bills and has always had a stellar credit rating, despite one previous downgrade from the threat of default.

    At least, that’s the way it has worked until now.

    McCarthy beseeched his conference in a closed-door meeting on Tuesday to line up behind a bill that would raise the debt limit for a year but require a flurry of spending concessions from Biden. He styled the measure as an initial way of forcing the president to the negotiating table. But the bill is purely tactical since it’s got no chance of passing the Democratic-led Senate.

    But in a sign of how difficult it will be for the speaker to even pull this gambit off, there were signs of internal disagreement on what should be in the package among GOP members.

    Rep. Scott Perry, the chairman of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, was frustrated about a lack of specificity in the plan and wanted steeper cuts.

    “I don’t know what’s in the package completely. That’s the issue,” Perry told reporters. Some members seem reluctant to commit so far. Conservative Rep. Tim Burchett told CNN’s Manu Raju, “I’m open to it but I’m still a ‘no’ vote.”

    It is not unusual for various factions in a congressional majority to haggle over details before a final package is agreed. And House Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry, a McCarthy ally, was confident the plan would pass the House. “The question is, what does the White House then do once we pass this package? We’ve clearly stated there is no clean debt ceiling that will pass the House,” he added. “So we’ll have the first opening offer here. And we’ll see if the president’s willing to come to the table and negotiate like previous presidents have.”

    McHenry’s comment, however, reflected a big flaw in the GOP strategy since it relies on McCarthy’s belief that Biden will have no choice but to come to the table. The White House has insisted the House should do its job and pass a simple bill that only raises the borrowing limit

    In effect, McCarthy has already set up a severe test of his leadership since there’s no guarantee that he can pass the measure in a House where he can only lose four votes and in which there are few signs the fractious GOP can agree on what programs to cut and by how much. And even if the measure does squeeze through the House in the coming weeks, it will likely be an idealized Republican product on which Biden and the Democratic Senate will never bite. Any subsequent package that emerged would almost certainly feature concessions that could splinter its GOP support.

    Still, the speaker was typically bullish when he predicted Monday he’d have the votes to pass his initial bill.

    “I think we got 218 to raise the debt ceiling,” McCarthy told CNN. “We’ve got a lot of consensus within the conference. We’ll get together and work through it.”

    His assurances may not be very reassuring, however, because his similarly blithe predictions that he had the votes to win the speakership in January degenerated into a farcical process that saw him make huge concessions to his party’s most radical members and required 15 ballots before he finally won the job of his dreams.

    But with the debt ceiling, it will be Americans’ livelihoods and the global economy, rather than McCarthy’s immediate political ambitions, that are on the line.

    So far, Republicans seem to be having trouble negotiating with themselves, let alone Biden. Republican Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota, who is helping to fashion the GOP’s position, said that while the party hopes to pass the initial bill next week, challenges remain.

    “I think the hardest part is just that there are an unlimited number of conservative policy victories that, of course, we all want to see worked in,” Johnson told CNN’s Manu Raju. “The reality is that in a negotiation, you never get everything you want. And so I think our biggest issue right now is how do we squeeze these thousands of desires down to a manageable and credible number of asks?”

    Another complication is that some members of the Republican conference have said they will never vote to raise the debt ceiling on principle – no matter what. In a powerful Republican majority such holdouts could be ignored. In McCarthy’s narrow majority – secured after a 2022 midterm election that fell short of GOP expectations – they have real leverage. And Democrats have little incentive to help McCarthy out in the event of GOP defections since they’d presumably have to vote for huge cuts that Biden has opposed in any final GOP bill. And the speaker probably couldn’t risk using Democratic votes anyway after agreeing to a rule, as he battled to win his job, that lets any single member call a vote on his ouster.

    The coming showdown over the debt ceiling is potentially the defining moment in the two-year period of uneasy cohabitation between the Democratic president and Republican speaker. Neither Biden nor McCarthy can afford to lose, and the outcome will shape both their legacies.

    There is nothing wrong with Republicans seeking to use the leverage they won in a democratic election to try to further their political goals of cutting public spending. There are some GOP lawmakers who sincerely worry about debt and deficits – even when their party runs government. Plenty of economists worry about the always ballooning national debt, which has crashed through $31 trillion. And Biden’s big spending on Covid relief packages, infrastructure, climate mitigation measures and health care programs triggered a debate on whether he worsened the inflation crisis.

    But are Republicans choosing the right hill for this battle when jobs, market-linked pension plans and the economic well-being of millions are at risk? The absolutist nature of McCarthy’s position pays little heed to a delicate balance of power. Democrats control the White House and the Senate, so in handing Republicans the House, albeit barely, voters might have been seeking compromise rather than confrontation.

    Republicans are also facing claims of hypocrisy, since they had little problem raising the debt limit when Donald Trump, who rarely worried about making a big spending splash, was president. The 45th commander in chief is also on videotape dating to his White House days saying he couldn’t believe anyone would use the debt ceiling as a “negotiating wedge.” Republicans notoriously turn into fiscal hawks when Democrats are in office but often look the other way when there is one of their own in the Oval Office.

    In order to prevail in this fight, McCarthy has to somehow change the political dynamic by saddling Biden with the blame for any default and the economic tensions that could begin to unfold even before the country plunges over a fiscal cliff.

    He tried to do so on Monday by insisting that the biggest threat to the US economy wasn’t a default but rising national debt.

    “Without exaggeration American debt is a ticking time bomb that will detonate unless we take serious responsible action. Yet, how has President Biden reacted to this issue? He has done nothing. So in my view, and I think the rest of America, it’s irresponsible,” he said.

    Previous fiscal showdowns between GOP-controlled Congresses and Democratic presidents have often rebounded poorly on Republicans. Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, for example, branded their foes in the House as economic arsonists and thereby gained political traction.

    McCarthy needs to reverse the equation, which is why he’s trying to portray Biden as stubborn in refusing to negotiate concessions for raising the debt ceiling. The two men haven’t met for the last 75 days and the White House is sticking to its position that the place for talks is over a budget – which House Republicans are yet to produce – and not with the full faith and credit of the US government on the line and with America’s reputation as a financial haven at stake.

    McCarthy is, therefore, in a bind. Congress, not the president, has the power to raise the government’s borrowing limit. Yet the speaker is demanding Biden give away his store over a duty that only McCarthy and his lawmakers can fulfill. No one would benefit from a default – especially not a president likely heading into a reelection race. But it’s hard to see how McCarthy can emerge from this conundrum as the winner if he triggers an economic meltdown.

    The White House twisted that particular knife on Monday.

    “There is one responsible solution to the debt limit: addressing it promptly, without brinksmanship or hostage taking – as Republicans did three times in the last administration and as Presidents Trump and Reagan argued for in office,” spokesman Andrew Bates said.

    Republicans in the Senate have so far tried to avoid the mess. But Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell did at least give his colleague in the House some moral support on Monday when he returned to the Capitol after convalescing after a fall.

    “President Biden does not get to stick his fingers in his ears and refuse to listen, talk or negotiate. And the American people know that. The White House needs to stop wasting time and start negotiating with the Speaker of the House,” McConnell said, though notably didn’t volunteer to get involved.

    McCarthy’s speech on Monday only furthered the impression that a damaging political crisis over the debt ceiling is, after months of simmering, moving toward a boil.

    As Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York put it on Monday: “He went all the way to Wall Street and gave us no more details, no more facts, no new information, and I’ll be blunt: If Speaker McCarthy continues in this direction we are headed to default.”

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  • Democrats bash Justice Clarence Thomas but their plan to investigate ethics allegations is unclear | CNN Politics

    Democrats bash Justice Clarence Thomas but their plan to investigate ethics allegations is unclear | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Senate Democrats railed against Justice Clarence Thomas on Tuesday amid reports that the Supreme Court conservative failed to disclose luxury travel, gifts and a real estate transaction involving a GOP megadonor, but their plan to investigate the conservative jurist remains unclear.

    Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin has promised that his committee will hold a hearing on the alleged ethics violations in the coming weeks, but shared no details when pressed by CNN on whether lawmakers will seek testimony from Thomas or others who might have knowledge about his relationship with the donor, Texas-based billionaire Harlan Crow.

    Asked if subpoenas were on the table, Durbin said that no decision has been made on that yet. He said that it was “too soon” to share more information about what his committee’s hearing on Supreme Court ethics might look like. He and other Judiciary Democrats sent a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts last week calling for him to open an investigation into the Thomas allegations.

    Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who sits on the Judiciary Committee, told reporters Tuesday that “the American people deserve all of the facts surrounding Justice Thomas’s blatant violation of law.”

    “I hope that [Thomas] will voluntarily appear, and if not, we should consider subpoenas for him and others, like Harlan Crow, who have information,” Blumenthal said.

    Other Democrats on the committee said Tuesday that they were deferring to Durbin, who huddled with Democrats on Monday evening to discuss their strategy towards Thomas.

    Meanwhile, Republicans appear mostly united in defending the Thomas, suggesting the court can handle its own affairs.

    Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell attacked Democrats for criticizing the court, and said he has confidence in Roberts “to deal with these court internal issues.”

    “The Democrats, it seems to me, spent a lot of time criticizing individual members of the court and going after the court as an institution,” McConnell told reporters Tuesday.

    Bringing more transparency to the high court has had some bipartisan support in the past, but the court’s jerk to the right – particularly with the three justices that former President Donald Trump put on the bench – has raised the partisan stakes around the issue. In recent years, the conservative majority has handled pivotal rulings undoing abortions rights, dismantling gun regulations and reining in the powers of executive branch agencies – all prompting outcry from Democrats.

    Even as Senate Democrats have yet to settle on a plan for their own response to the Thomas allegations, they sought to highlight the issue and framed it within their broader push for a code-of-ethics for the Supreme Court, which is excluded from many of the ethics rules that apply to lower rungs of the federal judiciary.

    “I’m disturbed by the recent reports detailing potentially unethical – even potentially illegal conduct – at the highest levels of our judiciary,” Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, said at a Judiciary Committee hearing for three lower court nominees on Tuesday. “It should go without saying that judges at all levels should be held to strict and enforceable ethical standards.”

    Durbin said in a speech that Congress shouldn’t have to wait for the court to act.

    “The Supreme Court doesn’t need to wait on Congress to clean up its act; the justices could take action today if they wanted to, and if the court fails to act, Congress must,” Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said on the Senate floor Tuesday.

    Back-to back-reports in ProPublica this month detailed how luxury travel and gifts to Thomas from Crow – and even a real estate transaction – went unreported in Thomas’ annual financial disclosures.

    Thomas has said that the travel and gifts to him and his family that were financed by the Crows went unreported because he had been advised that he was not required to do so, under an exemption in the court’s disclosure rules for so-called “personal hospitality.” After scrutiny of those rules by lawmakers, the Judicial Conference – which operates as the policy-making body for the federal judiciary – recently closed a loophole in those rules that appears to have covered some of the hospitality Thomas received. Thomas said that he intended to follow that updated guidance in the future, and a source close to the justice also told CNN in recent days that he planned to amend his disclosure form to report the real estate transaction, the sale of his mother’s home to Crow.

    “If the reports are accurate, it stinks,” Sen. Mitt Romney said Monday evening, in rare comments from a Republican criticizing Thomas’ lack of transparency.

    Other Republicans lined up in defense of the justice – who was named to the Supreme Court by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 – and said it wasn’t Congress’ place to push an ethics code on the high court.

    Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican member of the Judiciary Committee, suggested that the accusations against Thomas were part of a “multi-decade effort now to target Clarence Thomas by these liberal activist groups.”

    This is not the first time Thomas has been at the center of an ethics controversy. Last year, CNN reported that his wife Ginni Thomas, a conservative activist, was texting with Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows about the former president’s efforts overturn his 2020 election defeat, and her political lobbying has long raised questions about when justices are obligated to recuse themselves from cases.

    Yet Republicans have shown little interest in joining Democrats in using legislation to impose an ethics code on the justices.

    “The Court, kind of historically I think, has sort of policed itself,” said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the GOP’s Senate Whip, who said Thomas had been a “solid justice on the court through the years and has acquitted himself well there.”

    “Let’s see what the court does,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, told CNN Tuesday. “I prefer them to do it internally.”

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  • Fetterman returns to the Senate following treatment for clinical depression | CNN Politics

    Fetterman returns to the Senate following treatment for clinical depression | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Sen. John Fetterman has returned to the Senate after receiving treatment for clinical depression at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The Pennsylvania Democrat began inpatient treatment in February and was discharged at the end of March.

    “It’s great to be back,” he told reporters as he arrived at the Capitol Monday afternoon. He did not answer questions.

    “I want everyone to know that depression is treatable, and treatment works,” Fetterman said in a statement after his release. “This isn’t about politics — right now there are people who are suffering with depression in red counties and blue counties. If you need help, please get help.” His office had said he would return to Washington, DC, when the Senate came back into session on April 17 following a two-week recess.

    While Fetterman had dealt with “depression off and on throughout his life, it only became severe in recent weeks,” his chief of staff said in February, announcing that the senator had decided to seek treatment.

    Fetterman, a 53-year-old freshman senator who was elected in November of last year, suffered a stroke ahead of the the May 2022 Democratic Senate primary in Pennsylvania, which he went on to win.

    Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed support for the Pennsylvania Democrat as he underwent treatment for clinical depression – and Fetterman’s decision to seek treatment opened up a broader conversation on Capitol Hill about mental health.

    Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, CNN’s Lauren Fox that Fetterman “saved lives” by being public about getting help for his depression.

    “I think John Fetterman saved lives by being a prominent person who stepped up and said he had a problem with mental health issues and he would seek treatment in a very visible and public way,” Warren said.

    Editor’s Note: If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters, please call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or visit the hotline’s website.

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  • McConnell back after fall as Senate resumes | CNN Politics

    McConnell back after fall as Senate resumes | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has returned to the Senate following a period of recovery in the wake of a fall.

    McConnell arrived on Capitol Hill Monday morning and did not answer questions from CNN about how he is feeling after spending the last several weeks recovering after a fall where he suffered a concussion and fractured rib. CNN spotted McConnell in the Capitol exclusively.

    McConnell was at the Capitol on Friday, but Monday marks the GOP Senate leader’s first day back in session. The House and Senate are both returning to session today following a two-week recess period.

    McConnell also did not answer a question about how he will handle the issue of how Democrats want to temporarily replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein on the Judiciary committee. Feinstein’s absence as she recovers from shingles is making it more difficult for Democrats to process judicial nominees on the panel, setting up a potential clash with Republicans as they seek to replace her.

    McConnell was hospitalized last month after he tripped and fell at a dinner event in Washington, DC. He was treated for a concussion and a rib fracture before being released to an inpatient rehabilitation facility for physical therapy.

    At the time, a McConnell aide told CNN, “it is very common to undergo physical therapy to regain strength after a hospital stay.”

    McConnell, who is 81 years old, left the physical therapy facility on March 25. In a statement, the Senate GOP leader said that, following advice from his physical therapists, he would, “spend the next few days working for Kentuckians and the Republican Conference from home.”

    McConnell added that he remained “in frequent touch with my Senate colleagues and my staff. I look forward to returning in person to the Senate soon.”

    Earlier this year, McConnell became the longest-serving party leader in Senate history.

    During his absence, Senate Republicans who spoke with the McConnell said he was itching to get back to the chamber. The No. 2 Senate Republican, Minority Whip John Thune, noted that he was “anxious” to return, and Texas Senator John Cornyn told reporters that McConnell was “chomping at the bit” to come back to the Capitol.

    This was not McConnell’s first fall. Several years ago, he fractured his shoulder in a fall at his home in Kentucky.

    The top Republican is not the only senator returning from an extended absence.

    Across the aisle, Democrat Senator John Fetterman will return to the Senate after receiving inpatient treatment for clinical depression at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Fetterman was discharged from the hospital at the end of last month.

    Feinstein has been absent from the Senate after being treated in the hospital, and then at home, for shingles. It is not yet clear exactly when she may return.

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  • Opinion: Why isn’t the House Judiciary Committee looking into red flags about Clarence Thomas? | CNN

    Opinion: Why isn’t the House Judiciary Committee looking into red flags about Clarence Thomas? | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM radio’s daily program “The Dean Obeidallah Show.” Follow him @DeanObeidallah@masto.ai. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.



    CNN
     — 

    On Monday, the GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee — chaired by Donald Trump ally Rep. Jim Jordan — is set to hold a field hearing in New York City called “Victims of Violent Crime in Manhattan.” A statement bills the hearing as an examination of how, the Judiciary Committee says, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s policies have “led to an increase in violent crime and a dangerous community for New York City residents.”

    In response, Bragg’s office slammed Jordan’s hearing as “a political stunt” while noting that data released by the New York Police Department shows crime is down in Manhattan with respect to murders, burglaries, robberies and more through April 2, compared with the same period last year.

    In reality, this Jordan-led hearing isn’t about stopping crime but about defending Trump — who was recently charged by a Manhattan grand jury with 34 felonies. Trump pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges stemming from an investigation into a hush-money payment to an adult film actress. The former president also is facing criminal probes in other jurisdictions over efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

    Bragg sued Jordan and his committee last week in federal court, accusing the Judiciary Committee chairman of a “transparent campaign to intimidate and attack” his office for its investigation and prosecution of Trump by making demands for confidential documents and testimony.

    While Jordan and his committee appear focused on discrediting the investigation into Trump, why aren’t they looking into two recent bombshell reports by ProPublica that raised red flags about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ financial relationship with GOP megadonor Harlan Crow? After all, the House Judiciary Committee’s website explains that it has jurisdiction over “matters relating to the administration of justice in federal courts” – for which the revelations concerning Thomas fit perfectly.

    First, we learned in early April that Crow had provided Thomas and his wife, Ginni, for decades with luxurious vacations including on the donor’s yacht and private jet to faraway places such as Indonesia and New Zealand. That information was never revealed to the public. (In a rare public statement, Thomas responded he was advised at the time that he did not have to report the trips. The justice said the guidelines for reporting personal hospitality have changed recently. “And, it is, of course, my intent to follow this guidance in the future,” he said.)

    Then on Thursday, ProPublica reported that Thomas failed to disclose a 2014 real estate deal involving the sale of three properties he and his family owned in Savannah, Georgia, to that same GOP megadonor, Crow. One of Crow’s companies made the purchases for $133,363, according to ProPublica. A federal disclosure law passed after Watergate requires Supreme Court justices and other officials to make public the details of most real estate sales over $1,000.

    As ProPublica detailed, the federal disclosure form Thomas filed for that year included a space to report the identity of the buyer in any private transaction, but Thomas left that space blank. Four ethics law experts told ProPublica that Thomas’ failure to report it appears to be a violation of the law. (Thomas did not respond to questions from ProPublica on its report; CNN reached out to the Supreme Court and Thomas for comment.)

    The House Judiciary Committee has long addressed issues such as those surrounding Thomas. In fact, the committee is where investigations and the impeachment of federal judges often commence.

    One recent example came in 2010 with Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr., whom the committee investigated and recommended for impeachment.

    The committee’s Task Force on Judicial Impeachment said evidence showed Porteous “intentionally made material false statements and representations under penalty of perjury, engaged in a corrupt kickback scheme, solicited and accepted unlawful gifts, and intentionally misled the Senate during his confirmation proceedings.” The Senate later found Porteous guilty of four articles of impeachment and removed him from the bench.

    Yet the Judiciary Committee has neither released statements nor tweets raising alarm bells about Thomas. Instead, its Twitter feed is filled with repeated tweets whining that C-SPAN won’t cover Monday’s New York field hearing. Worse, the committee retweeted GOP Rep. Mary Miller’s tweet defending Thomas as being attacked “because he is a man of deep faith, who loves our country and believes in our Constitution.”

    Jordan’s use of his committee to assist Trump should surprise no one. The House January 6 committee’s report called the Ohio Republican “a significant player in President Trump’s efforts” to overturn the election. The report detailed the lawmaker’s efforts to assist Trump including on “January 2, 2021, Representative Jordan led a conference call in which he, President Trump, and other Members of Congress discussed strategies for delaying the January 6th joint session.” As a result, the January 6 committee subpoenaed Jordan to testify — but he refused to cooperate.

    In contrast with the House panel, the Senate Judiciary Committee — headed by Democrats — announced in the wake of the reporting on Thomas that it plans to hold a hearing “on the need to restore confidence in the Supreme Court’s ethical standards.” Beyond that, Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia sent a letter Friday calling for a referral of Thomas to the US attorney general over “potential violations of the Ethics in Government Act 1978.”

    The House Judiciary Committee’s website notes, “The Committee on the Judiciary has been called the lawyer for the House of Representatives.” Under Jordan that description needs to be updated to state that the Committee on the Judiciary is now “the lawyer for Donald J. Trump.” And the worst part is that the taxpayers are the ones paying for Jordan’s work on Trump’s behalf.

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  • Six takeaways from campaign fundraising filings by Trump, Haley, Santos and more | CNN Politics

    Six takeaways from campaign fundraising filings by Trump, Haley, Santos and more | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Former President Donald Trump’s criminal indictment helped jolt his fundraising. GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley faces questions about her campaign math. Embattled New York Rep. George Santos refunded more contributions than he took in. And some – but not all – of the Democratic Party’s most vulnerable Senate incumbents have stepped up their fundraising ahead of tough 2024 election fights.

    Here’s a look at a few takeaways from new first-quarter campaign filings covering the first three months of 2023:

    Trump raised about $14.4 million for his main campaign committee in the first quarter of this year – with donations spiking at the end of March as news broke of his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury.

    The new filings suggest that the former president’s legal troubles have helped him politically and financially as he makes a third bid for the White House. But the amount only captures the start of what the campaign said was a fundraising surge that continued into the beginning of the second quarter.

    Even so, Trump’s first-quarter haul lagged behind the pace he had set in earlier campaigns.

    Earlier this month, Haley;s campaign publicized what it boasted as a strong haul for her 2024 presidential bid: The former South Carolina governor had raised “more than $11 million in just six weeks,” according to a campaign release.

    But official filings with the Federal Election Commission on Saturday night show that the campaign appears to have double-counted money routed among Haley’s fundraising committees, overstating the topline figure.

    The three committees connected to Haley raised a total of $8.3 million – still a sizable showing for a first-time presidential candidate but not the figure publicly touted by the former UN ambassador’s campaign.

    Fundraising serves as one benchmark of support for a campaign, and candidates are often eager to tout big numbers in advance of their official filings with federal regulators.

    In an email to CNN on Sunday, Haley campaign spokesman Ken Farnaso defended the $11 million figure, saying the accounting mirrored how other candidates have previously described their fundraising.

    Other candidates have sought to present their campaign filings in the most favorable light. Trump’s campaign, for instance, touted a $9.5 million haul during the first six weeks of his campaign. But, in that window, only about $5 million flowed into the joint fundraising committee that powers his political operation.

    Embattled Rep. George Santos’ campaign refunded more contributions than it took in during the first three months of the year, according to a campaign report the New York Republican filed Saturday.

    The freshman congressman from Long Island received $5,333 in contributions during the first quarter and refunded more than $8,000 in donations. It’s highly unusual for a sitting member of Congress to report a net loss on a fundraising report.

    By contrast, another first-term congressman, Republican Anthony D’Esposito, who represents a neighboring district, reported more than $670,000 in receipts during the first quarter, including more than $300,000 from political action committees and other lawmakers’ campaign committees.

    Santos, who has lied about his education, work history and family background, faces a House ethics inquiry, along with local and federal investigations into his finances.

    His campaign reported $25,000 in remaining cash as of March 31 and $715,000 in debt – which Santos has described as personal funds he loaned to his successful 2020 effort for New York’s 3rd Congressional District.

    (How Santos, who in 2020 reported a $55,000 salary and no assets when he ran unsuccessfully for Congress, amassed the money to fund his campaign two years later remains one of the biggest questions surrounding his political rise.)

    Last month, Santos formally filed paperwork for a 2024 reelection bid, but it followed a demand from the FEC that he declare his intentions after he crossed a fundraising threshold that required him to file a statement of candidacy.

    Some of his fellow Republicans have urged the scandal-plagued congressman to resign or not seek reelection. Last month, when asked by CNN whether he intended to run again, Santos responded, “Maybe.”

    In the closely watched race to succeed California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Rep. Adam Schiff outraised the rest of the Democratic field, bringing in $6.7 million during the first quarter – topping the nearly $4.5 million raised by Rep. Katie Porter and roughly $1.3 million collected by Rep. Barbara Lee.

    Schiff also led the field in available cash, ending March with more than $24.6 million stockpiled in his campaign account.

    Porter, who transferred nearly $11 million from her House campaign into her Senate account this year, had more than $9.4 million in cash still available on March 31. Lee trailed with a little more than $1.1 million in available cash.

    Feinstein, who at 89 is the oldest sitting senator, has announced she will not seek reelection next year – although she is facing calls from some Democrats to retire now after being sidelined with shingles since early March.

    Last week, she asked to be temporarily replaced on the Senate Judiciary Committee while she continues her recuperation.

    In Arizona, the leading Democratic candidate for Senate, Rep. Ruben Gallego, outraised independent incumbent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, bringing in nearly $3.8 million to his opponent’s $2.1 million.

    Sinema, who changed her affiliation from Democrat late last year, continues to caucus with her former party. She has not formally declared an intention to seek a second term. But she has the resources to compete in what could be a costly, three-way general election battle for the seat. She ended March with nearly $10 million in available cash to Gallego’s $2.7 million.

    Mark Lamb, an Arizona sheriff aligned with Trump, this month became the first major Republican candidate to enter the race, but he won’t file his first fundraising report until July.

    Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio – who is seeking a fourth term in what will be one of the most closely watched contests of the 2024 cycle – raised more than $3.5 million in the first quarter, up from the roughly $333,000 he collected during the last three months of 2022.

    Several Republicans have lined up to challenge Brown, including Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno and former state Sen. Matt Dolan, whose family owns the Cleveland Guardians Major League Baseball team.

    Saturday’s filings show Dolan collecting $3.3 million – most of which he loaned his campaign. Moreno joined the race in April, after the first-quarter fundraising period had ended.

    Brown is one of three Democratic senators who are up for reelection next year in states won by Trump in 2020.

    Montana Sen. Jon Tester, another Democratic incumbent facing a tough reelection battle in a Republican state, raised $5 million in the first quarter and had $7 million stockpiled as of March 31.

    In deep-red West Virginia – a state Trump won by nearly 40 points in 2020 – Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin has not yet declared whether he will seek a third full term in 2024. He pulled in just $370,000 in the first quarter but was sitting atop a $9.7 million war chest of available cash as of March 31.

    West Virginia Rep. Alex Mooney, the first major Republican to enter the Senate race, collected roughly $500,000 in the first quarter.

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  • Sen. Tim Scott plans to launch 2024 exploratory committee Wednesday | CNN Politics

    Sen. Tim Scott plans to launch 2024 exploratory committee Wednesday | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina plans to launch an exploratory committee for president on Wednesday, according to a source familiar with his plans.

    Scott – the only Black Republican in the Senate – has been testing the waters for months. Since setting off on a listening tour in February focused on “Faith in America,” he’s made frequent visits to Iowa.

    He’s scheduled to hold events in the early voting state on Wednesday.

    The Post and Courier was first to report on the plans.

    “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking the past few months,” Scott wrote in a Tuesday night email to his supporters teasing a Wednesday morning announcement on Fox. “I’ve been thinking about my faith. I’ve been thinking about the future of our country. And I’ve been thinking about the Left’s plan to ruin America.”

    Scott easily won reelection to the Senate last fall and ended the year with more than $21 million in his campaign account, which he could use for a presidential bid.

    Former President Donald Trump, who announced his campaign to win back the White House last fall, has led the GOP primary field, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – who has yet to announce a bid – has also attracted attention from GOP voters. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson – a frequent Trump critic – announced that he’s running for the GOP nomination earlier this month. And Scott’s fellow South Carolinian, former Gov. Nikki Haley, announced her bid in February.

    Scott declined to endorse Haley – who appointed him to a vacant Senate seat in 2012 – a sign that he could seek the presidency himself. Both South Carolinians had attended the anti-tax group Club for Growth’s donor retreat in Palm Beach earlier this year alongside other potential GOP candidates.

    At a Christian conservative forum in his home state last month, Scott took aim at President Joe Biden’s economic policy and what he called the “disrespect” of law enforcement.

    He said that to “restore faith in America, we must be the party of security,” arguing for more funding for police departments and to “close the US southern border, period.”

    Scott spent months in Congress trying unsuccessfully to hash out a deal on policing reform with Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and then-Rep. Karen Bass of California. He spoke on the Senate floor following the brutal police beating and death of Tyre Nichols earlier this year, while calling on his colleagues to agree on “simple legislation” regarding police reform.

    He’s occasionally spoken out against Trump – for example, after the former president equivocated on racially motivated protesters and subsequent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

    “I’m not going to defend the indefensible. I’m not here to do that,” Scott said in an interview with Vice News at the time, going on to add that Trump’s “moral authority” had been “compromised.”

    Scott delivered the GOP response to Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress in 2021, which gave him a prominent national platform from which to speak to the country and counter Biden’s message.

    Before joining the Senate, Scott served one term in the US House. He also served in the South Carolina state House and on the Charleston County Council.

    This story has been updated with additional information.

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  • Ohio GOP businessman Moreno files for Senate bid | CNN Politics

    Ohio GOP businessman Moreno files for Senate bid | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Bernie Moreno, a wealthy Ohio businessman, has filed paperwork to run for Senate in 2024 and challenge Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in what’s likely to be one of the most competitive races of the upcoming cycle.

    Moreno is now the second Republican to officially jump into the race after state Sen. Matt Dolan announced his candidacy in January.

    Moreno mounted an unsuccessful campaign for Senate in 2022, loaning his campaign millions from his personal fortune before dropping out of the race ahead of the primary. His decision to drop out came after a meeting with former President Donald Trump, who would go on to endorse one of his rivals, J.D. Vance.

    The Cleveland businessman’s entry into the 2024 race sets up another potentially expensive and contentious primary in the state after the 2022 contest, which was driven by several self-funding candidates, was one of the costliest that year.

    Other potential candidates who have expressed interest include 8th district Rep. Warren Davidson and Secretary of State Frank La Rose.

    Brown is one of several vulnerable Democrats who the party is defending as it seeks to hold its slim majority in the upper chamber. Trump carried the state in 2016 and 2020, and Vance won the 2022 race by nearly 7 points despite a spirited challenge by Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan.

    Still, Brown, seeking his fourth term, won his last race in 2018 by nearly 7 points, bolstering Democratic hopes that they can hang on in a state that has trended increasingly Republican over the last several election cycles. And Brown had more than $3.4 million stockpiled in Senate campaign account as of the end of last year.

    Democrats, though, will be pressed to defend Brown amid a challenging map that includes other incumbents in similarly vulnerable positions, such as Sen. Joe Manchin in West Virginia and Sen. Jon Tester in Montana, along with an unpredictable three-way race in Arizona.

    CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect that former President Donald Trump endorsed JD Vance in the 2022 Ohio Senate race after a meeting with Bernie Moreno.

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  • Senate Republicans confront 2024 primary challenges and Trump’s influence | CNN Politics

    Senate Republicans confront 2024 primary challenges and Trump’s influence | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Kari Lake – the unapologetic supporter of former President Donald Trump and vanquished candidate for Arizona governor – privately made a trip to National Republican Senatorial Committee headquarters in February where she discussed the prospects of shaking up the map and running for Senate.

    But Lake, who has faced blowback over pushing baseless accusations of election fraud, was given this suggestion from NRSC officials: Shift to more effective messaging and away from claims about a stolen election, according to sources familiar with the matter.

    The meeting, which was described as a positive one, focused on how Senate bids often turn on issues that are different than governor’s races, multiple sources said. Top Republicans quietly acknowledge Lake could become a frontrunner if she runs in the primary, hoping to steer her towards a viable campaign if she mounts one, even as Arizona’s Pinal County sheriff is expected to soon jump into the race while independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema actively prepares a reelection bid herself.

    And that’s just one state.

    The Arizona race is one of several landmines that Republican leaders are navigating as they work behind the scenes to avoid a repeat of the 2022 debacle that saw weaker candidates emerge from contested primaries – only to peter out and collapse in the general election and hand Democrats a 51-49 Senate majority. Several of those candidates were backed by Trump as the NRSC – run at the time by Florida Sen. Rick Scott – opted to stay away from Republican primaries.

    Now, the NRSC – run by Sen. Steve Daines of Montana – has taken a much more hands-on approach to primaries, actively working on candidate recruitment and vetting. And the committee is weighing whether to spend big bucks in primaries to help root out weaker candidates, a move that risks setting up a clash with hard-right candidates aligning themselves with Trump.

    “You need to learn from your past mistakes,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, told CNN. “If you don’t make adjustments, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome, it’s insanity.”

    Privately, Daines has spoken multiple times with Trump and has been in touch with his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., while national Republicans point to the NRSC’s early endorsement and fundraising for Rep. Jim Banks in the Indiana Senate race as an example of how the party’s warring wings can try to avoid messy primaries.

    The goal, GOP sources say, is to keep Trump aligned with Republican leadership – even as the former president has furiously attacked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in the aftermath of the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, and as the Senate GOP leader has stayed silent amid the former president’s indictment on 34 felony charges in New York. Daines, however, has been vocal in his defense of Trump.

    “I have a very good relationship with the president. We talk, and it’s no secret we’ve been friends for a long time,” Daines told CNN when asked about the Senate races. “And he provides great insights. And I also provide my thoughts as well. And we have open lines of communication.”

    Daines added: “Wherever we can find common ground is a good thing.”

    That relationship could be put to the test in key battleground states. In West Virginia, Republican leaders are preparing to close ranks behind Gov. Jim Justice, who is seriously weighing a run for the seat occupied by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. A Justice bid would put him against Rep. Alex Mooney, who had won Trump’s backing in a competitive House race in the last cycle but now has the support of the conservative Club for Growth’s political arm.

    In Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano – the controversial candidate who lost a bid for governor last fall but had the support of Trump in the primary – says he’s “still praying” on whether to mount a bid for the Senate, something Republicans in Washington fear. The NRSC plans to put its muscle behind the potential candidacy of David McCormick, the hedge fund executive who narrowly lost the Pennsylvania Senate GOP primary in 2022, according to Republican sources who view him as their best bet at picking up the seat next year.

    “I haven’t decided yet on 2024. I’m thinking about it,” McCormick told CNN. “You run for office … because you think you have something to contribute. You think it’s a moment where you might be able to serve, and if you lose, that motivation doesn’t necessarily go away.”

    And in Montana, Rep. Matt Rosendale, a member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, is weighing a run in a race that could put him up against two other potential candidates viewed by senior Republicans as more electable – Montana attorney general Austin Knudsen and businessman Tim Sheehy – against Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. Rosendale attended an event last Tuesday in Mar-a-Lago following Trump’s arraignment in New York, a sign one Trump adviser saw as an effort to secure an endorsement ahead of a potential bid.

    Rosendale told CNN he’s in no rush to make a decision.

    “We’re just taking a nice slow time to let the people in Montana decide who they want to replace him with,” Rosendale said of Tester. “I feel very sure he will be replaced.” He added that Daines “is my senator” and that “I see him regularly.”

    Tester contended that the Republican nominee makes little difference to him.

    “I think the person who runs against me is the person McConnell chooses,” Tester said. “Whoever that is, I don’t think it matters much: Same election.”

    Top Republicans say they will have to make key strategic decisions on how to engage in some of these races – or whether to stay out altogether, as they might in Ohio as party leaders view the emerging field as full of electable candidates against Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

    If they come in too aggressively, it could prompt blowback and rally the right behind a potentially weaker candidate. But if they disengage, they could see their favored candidate struggle to gain traction.

    In Wisconsin, Republican officials are urging Rep. Mike Gallagher to run, though he could face a potential primary there as well, as former Senate candidate Eric Hovde and others weigh a run. Gallagher, who is chairing a House panel focused on China, said of a potential run against Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin: “I’m not thinking about it at present,” citing his legislative work and family commitments. But he left the door open.

    “I’d never conceived of this as a long-term thing; I don’t think Congress should be a career,” Gallagher said, adding: “I’m going to weigh all those factors and see where I can make the best impact.”

    In interviews with roughly a dozen top senators, nearly all of them agreed they need to be hyper-focused this cycle on helping candidates who can win not only a primary election, but a general election — repeatedly referencing “candidate quality” as their 2024 motto.

    Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a member of Senate GOP leadership and former NRSC chairman, has long had to contend with primary fights between the party establishment and activist base – battles that had effectively cost them the chance at the Senate majority in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles, in addition to 2022.

    “It never goes away,” Cornyn said of the primary complications. “Republicans need to make up their mind. Do we want to win, or do we want to lose? And I think that it’s that simple, and I think people are tired of losing.”

    Yet some on the right are warning against party leaders picking and choosing their candidates – including Scott, who defends his hands-off approach in the last cycle.

    “I believe the citizens of the state ought to pick,” Scott said, adding: “A lot of these weaker candidates often are the ones who actually win. I was not the establishment candidate.”

    Scott’s fellow Florida Republican, Marco Rubio, was not backed by the NRSC in the 2010 election cycle. But he galvanized the GOP base and defeated Charlie Crist, who later became a Democrat.

    “I’m not a big believer that you can determine who the weaker candidate is. A lot of people up here then would not have been their choice,” Rubio told CNN. “Obviously there might be some exceptions here or there, but generally the NRSC should be engaged in helping whoever the Republican nominee is to win the general election.”

    Unlike the last cycle — when the McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund and the Rick Scott-run NRSC clashed publicly over the approach to expanding the Senate map — this time, the two committees are largely aligned. Republicans are betting that their preferred chances will vastly improve with the help of big donors and nationwide fundraising – and potentially an aggressive ad campaign in the primary to derail weaker opponents.

    “As we look across the country and look at different traces, it’s pretty straightforward,” Daines said. “We want to see candidates who can win a primary election and also win a general.”

    The map heavily favors the GOP – with 23 Democratic and independent seats in cycle compared to just 11 Republicans facing re-election. But Republicans, burnt by their past failures, are well aware that defeating an incumbent is a difficult task and could grow more challenging in a presidential election year, especially in swing states if Trump is the nominee. Behind the scenes, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is trying to limit Democratic retirements.

    And Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, was skeptical that a more aggressive GOP intervention from Washington would solve Republican woes.

    “I’m not sure who the Republicans will put forward as their nominees, but normally the folks who get to determine who the nominee is are the voters in those individual states in the primaries,” Peters said in an interview. “If we look at what happened last cycle, those primary voters tended to pick highly flawed candidates, and I expect that will happen again.”

    The fight for the seat occupied by Sinema has quickly emerged as the messiest affair – for both parties.

    Sinema’s recent change in party identification — switching from a Democrat to an independent — poses a fresh challenge that party leaders will have to navigate, as it could set up an unpredictable three-way race. Sinema has not yet said if she will run again, but she has been raising enormous sums in preparation for a potential bid and has been meeting with strategists and advisers to map out plans for a possible campaign.

    And Democratic leaders are worried that backing a fellow Democrat in the primary could end up alienating Sinema and potentially lead her to caucus with the GOP, forcing them to stay neutral for now.

    “She’s a very effective legislator,” Schumer, who so far is neutral in the race, said when asked about Sinema recently.

    On the GOP side, several candidates who tried — and failed — to win statewide races last cycle are also complicating that strategy, making it a key source of anxiety among many top Republicans and the Senate committees, according to Republican sources.

    Those candidates include Lake and the 2020 Senate GOP nominee, Blake Masters, two of the most Trumpian candidates who lost last year. Both Lake and Masters garnered enormous support among the GOP base for leaning into 2020 election denials and the populist ideals that Trump touted throughout his presidency. Masters has discussed a potential 2024 Senate bid with several Republicans, though it’s unclear whether he will run, GOP sources say.

    Lake met with the NRSC for roughly an hour in February and is expected to meet with them again in the coming weeks, sources familiar with the meeting told CNN. The issue of focusing on claims of a stolen election was one point discussed at the meeting, the sources said.

    “The point that has been brought up, which Kari knows, is that the issue sets are different from a governor’s race. She knows you can’t run on that because it’s not something, as a senator, that you can fix,” a source close to Lake said, referencing her rhetoric around stolen elections. “The conversation was more about how the issues are different between a governor’s race and a Senate race.”

    Senior Republicans acknowledge that her ultimate decision on whether to enter the race could freeze out other candidates, particularly those wanting to run in the same lane, with the source close to Lake saying establishment-minded Republicans have been reaching out to her about a potential run. The source said Lake has a 200,000-plus donor list she could pull support from and believes she would have “widespread support” if she decides to run.

    But many in the top ranks are skeptical about her chances.

    “If you take a look at the race, where Sen. Sinema is probably going to take some of the right, left and center, it’s going to make for a difficult path for a Republican in that state in any scenario,” North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis told CNN. “The party there is, I think, set on Lake if she decides to run with it, but, I mean, we just have to see how well she performs.”

    Tillis added that, given the “three-way race dynamic,” Lake “is not going to be able to make a lot of headway there.”

    Cornyn said of Lake: “Her recent track record doesn’t indicate that she would be successful. We need candidates who can broaden their appeal beyond the base and win a general.”

    Masters, meanwhile, has quietly reached out to some advisers about what another Senate run would look like and has spoken with some senior GOP officials about a 2024 run.

    Other potential GOP candidates include Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, who is expected to announce a Senate run as soon as this week and is viewed favorably by some top Republicans, according to GOP sources. Abe Hamadeh, formerly the Republican nominee for Arizona attorney general, is also weighing a run. And both Lamb and Hamadeh met recently with NRSC officials, but they have not met directly with Daines, according to a source familiar with the meetings.

    Two other Republicans, Jim Lamon and Karrin Taylor Robson, are also considering jumping into the race, sources familiar with the matter say. Lamon and Robson, who ran in 2022 for Senate and governor respectively, did not receive Trump’s support.

    Robson recently met with the NRSC, and many within the GOP committee “like her and see her as a quality candidate,” a source familiar with the meeting said. Lamon has not yet met with the NRSC, but is expected to set up a meeting in the coming months.

    Arizona’s Senate primary is not until August 6, 2024, and the filing deadline to enter is April 8, 2024 — giving them a long runway to decide whether or not to run — further complicating GOP leadership’s calculus on how to navigate the race dynamics.

    “I just think we’re, we’re more likely to get people elected if they’re focused on the future, as opposed to focusing on what happened in 2020,” Sen. Mitt Romney, a Republican of Utah, said when asked about a potential Lake candidacy. “I think the American people have made their judgment about the election and want to move on. So, let’s talk about the future and where we’re headed, and if we’ve got a candidate that is consumed with his or her past, it’s most likely a losing candidate.”

    Caroline Wren, a senior adviser to Lake, told CNN, “There’s no doubt Kari Lake is a formidable force in the Republican party right now, but she’s still focused on her lawsuit in Arizona,” referring to her efforts to dispute her loss in the governor’s race.

    Rubio said that Lake could be a strong Senate candidate, despite her shortfall last year.

    “She was a very competitive candidate. I think I trust the Republican voters in Arizona to pick the nominee,” Rubio said. “I don’t think Washington should be stepping in to do it.”

    But Democrats believe that a Lake candidacy will only bolster their chances, even if Sinema decides to run.

    Rep. Ruben Gallego, the Arizona Democrat running for his party’s nomination in the Senate race, suggested to CNN he was praying for a Lake candidacy.

    “I’m a practicing Catholic – so I have these votive candles for different things,” Gallego said. “I have a special candle for Kari Lake to jump in.”

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  • Sen. Blumenthal will undergo ‘routine surgery’ after fracturing femur during parade | CNN Politics

    Sen. Blumenthal will undergo ‘routine surgery’ after fracturing femur during parade | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal will undergo “routine surgery” on Sunday after he fractured his femur at a University of Connecticut men’s basketball victory parade.

    Connecticut’s senior senator said in a post on Twitter that the fracture happened during the team’s parade Saturday in honor of their NCAA championship win last week.

    “I did indeed fracture my femur after a fellow parade goer tripped & fell on me during the parade today,” Blumenthal said. “Routine surgery tomorrow just to make sure everything heals properly. I expect a full recovery!”

    Blumenthal was replying to Sen. Chris Murphy, a fellow Connecticut Democrat who was also at the parade and tweeted that his colleague “FINISHED THE PARADE” after breaking his femur. “Most Dick Blumenthal thing ever,” Murphy said.

    The 77-year-old Blumenthal won a third Senate term last fall. First elected in 2010, he previously served five terms as Connecticut’s attorney general.

    The Senate is set to reconvene April 17. The Democratic Caucus’s narrow 51-49 advantage in the chamber means any absence could affect key votes. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman was recently discharged from a hospital where he was being treated for depression and expects to return when the Senate reconvenes.

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  • Who will end up paying for the banking crisis: You | CNN Business

    Who will end up paying for the banking crisis: You | CNN Business

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    A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    It cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation about $23 billion to clean up the mess that Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank left in the wake of their collapses earlier this month.

    Now, as the dust clears and the US banking system steadies, the FDIC needs to figure out where to send its invoice. While regional and mid-sized banks are behind the recent turmoil, it appears that large banks may be footing the bill.

    Ultimately, that means higher fees for bank customers and lower rates on their savings accounts.

    What’s happening: The FDIC maintains a $128 billion deposit insurance fund to insure bank deposits and protect depositors. That fund is typically supplied by quarterly payments from insured banks in the United States. But when a big, expensive event happens — like the FDIC making uninsured customers whole at Silicon Valley Bank — the agency is able to assess a special charge on the banking industry to recover the cost.

    The law also gives the FDIC the authority to decide which banks shoulder the brunt of that assessment fee. FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg said this week that he plans to make the details of the latest assessment public in May. He has also hinted that he would protect community banks from having to shell out too much money.

    The fees that the FDIC assesses on banks tend to vary. Historically, they were fixed, but 2010’s Dodd-Frank act required that the agency needed to consider the size of a bank when setting rates. It also takes into consideration the “economic conditions, the effects on the industry, and such other factors as the FDIC deems appropriate and relevant,” according to Gruenberg.

    On Tuesday and Wednesday, members of the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee grilled Gruenberg about his plans to charge banks for the damage done by SVB and others, and repeatedly implored him to leave small banks alone.

    Gruenberg appeared receptive.

    “Will you commit to using your authority…to establish separate risk-based assessment systems for large and small members of the Deposit Insurance Fund so that these well-managed banks don’t have to bail out Silicon Valley Bank?” asked the US Rep. Andy Barr, a Republican who represents of Kentucky’s 6th district.

    “I’m certainly willing to consider that,” replied Gruenberg.

    “if smaller community banks in Texas will be left responsible for bailing out the failed banks in California and New York?” asked US Rep. Roger Williams, a Republican who represents Texas’ 25th district.

    “Let me just say, without forecasting what our board is going to vote, we’re going to be keenly sensitive to the impact on community banks,” replied Gruenberg.

    Representatives Frank Lucas, John Rose, Ayanna Pressley, Dan Meuser, Nikema Williams, Zach Nunn and Andy Ogles all asked similar questions and received similar responses. As did US Sens. Sherrod Brown and Cynthia Lummis.

    “I don’t doubt he’s still fielding a lot of phone calls,” from politicians pressuring him to place the burden on large banks, former FDIC chairman Bill Isaac told CNN.

    Smaller banks are saying that they’re unable to pick up this tab and didn’t have anything to do with the failure of “these two wild and crazy banks,” said Isaac. “They’re arguing to put the assessment on larger banks and as I understand it, the FDIC is thinking seriously about it,” he added.

    A spokesperson from the FDIC told CNN that the agency “will issue in May 2023 a proposed rulemaking for the special assessment for public comment.” In regard to Greunberg’s testimony they added that “when the boss says something, we defer to the boss.”

    Big banks: “We need to think hard about liquidity risk and concentrations of uninsured deposits and how that’s evaluated in terms of deposit insurance assessments,” said Gruenberg to the Senate Banking Committee, indicating that smaller banks that are operating carefully could be asked to bear less of the assessment.

    A larger assessment on big banks would add to what will already be a multi-billion dollar payment from the nation’s largest banks like JPMorgan Chase

    (JPM)    , Citigroup

    (C)    , Bank of America

    (BAC)     and Wells Fargo

    (WFC)    .

    The argument is that the largest US banks will be able to shoulder extra payments without collapsing under it. Those large banks also benefited greatly from the collapse of SVB and Signature Bank as wary customers sought safety by moving billions of dollars worth of money to big banks. 

    Passing it on: Regardless of who’s charged, the fees will eventually get passed on to bank customers in the end, said Isaac. “It’s going to be passed on to all customers. I have no doubts that banks will make up for these extra costs in their pricing — higher fees for services, higher prices for loans and less compensation for deposits.”

    It’s hard out there for a Wall Street banker. Or harder than it was.

    The average annual Wall Street bonus fell to $176,700 last year, a 26% drop from the previous year’s average of $240,400, according to estimates released Thursday by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

    While that’s a big decrease, the 2022 bonus figure is still more than twice the median annual income for US households, reports CNN’s Jeanne Sahadi.

    All in, Wall Street firms had a $33.7 billion bonus pool for 2022, which is 21% smaller than the previous year’s record of $42.7 billion — and the largest drop since the Great Recession.

    For New York City and New York State coffers, bonus season means a welcome infusion of revenue, since employees in the securities industry make up 5% of private sector employees in NYC and their pay accounts for 22% of the city’s private sector wages. In 2021, Wall Street was estimated to be responsible for 16% of all economic activity in the city.

    DiNapoli’s office projects the lower bonuses will bring in $457 million less in state income tax revenue and $208 million less for the city compared to the year before.

    Beleaguered retailed Bed Bath & Beyond will attempt to $300 million of its stock to repay creditors and fund its business as it struggles to avoid bankruptcy, reports CNN’s Nathaniel Meyersohn.

    If it’s not able to raise sufficient money from the offering, the home furnishings giant said Thursday it expects to “likely file for bankruptcy.”

    Bed Bath & Beyond was able to initially avoid bankruptcy in February by completing a complex stock offering that gave it both an immediate injection of cash and a pledge for more funding in the future to pay down its debt. That offering was backed by private equity group Hudson Bay Capital.

    But on Thursday, Bed Bath & Beyond said it was terminating the deal with Hudson Bay Capital for future funding and is turning to the public market.

    Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond dropped more than 26% Thursday. The stock was trading around 60 cents a share.

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  • Fetterman to return to Senate week of April 17 | CNN Politics

    Fetterman to return to Senate week of April 17 | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Sen. John Fetterman, who checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last month for treatment for clinical depression, will return to the Senate during the week of April 17, according to a person familiar with his plans.

    The Pennsylvania Democrat has made progress throughout his treatment, the source said, adding that his stay has been this long because doctors have tried to ensure his medication was effective.

    Fetterman is one of three senators who have been sidelined for months due to injuries and ailments. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, 81, who suffered a concussion and broken rib after falling earlier this month, is expected to return to the Senate in mid-April as well, while Sen. Dianne Feinstein, an 89-year-old California Democrat, has been recovering from home this month after being hospitalized for shingles. It is not yet known when Feinstein will return.

    Fetterman, the 53-year-old freshman who helped cement Democrats’ 51-49 Senate majority last fall, suffered a stroke last year during the days ahead of the primary. And when he returned to the campaign trail, Fetterman often struggled to communicate with lingering auditory processing issues, relying on assistance through devices with closed captioning in order to properly have conversations and answer questions.

    The same auditory processing issues impacted him in his early days in the Senate. And when he struggled with substantial weight loss and a loss of appetite in recent weeks, he was diagnosed with clinical depression, later checking himself into Walter Reed for treatment.

    Politico first reported Fetterman’s plans to return to the Senate April 17.

    CNN earlier reported that Fetterman was expected to soon leave the hospital due to progress with his treatment.

    The source, who has spent ample time with Fetterman since he checked in on February 16, said the senator’s physician recently informed him that he will be “as good or better than his best days post-stroke,” referring to the near-fatal stroke he suffered last May.

    “He’s doing extremely well,” the source said.

    Fetterman’s stay at Walter Reed has lasted this long because the doctors have been trying to get his “medication balance exactly right,” the source said. For instance, doctors learned that his blood pressure medication was too high, which they believed contributed to his dizziness when he checked into George Washington University Hospital last month. A few days after that hospital visit, Fetterman was diagnosed with clinical depression, an illness many stroke survivors have struggled with.

    The goal, the source said, has been to take full advantage of his care at Walter Reed to help with other major impacts from his stroke. For instance, neuropsychiatric doctors have helped with the auditory processing issues he’s struggled with in the aftermath of the stroke.

    While Fetterman hasn’t left Walter Reed since checking himself in, he hasn’t been confined to his room. There are trails, restaurants like Wendy’s and other parts of the facility that he spends time in, the source said.

    This story has been updated with additional developments.

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  • Biden’s pick to lead the FAA withdraws from nomination | CNN Politics

    Biden’s pick to lead the FAA withdraws from nomination | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Federal Aviation Administration is withdrawing his name from nomination due to “an onslaught of unfounded Republican attacks” on the nominee’s service and experience, a White House official told CNN.

    Phillip Washington’s nomination was first announced by the White House last year, but has faced strong criticism from Republican lawmakers over a number of issues, including Washington’s slim aviation credentials and his potential legal entanglements.

    The White House respects Washington’s decision to withdraw his name and praised his public service record and qualifications to lead the FAA, the official said.

    The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation was scheduled to vote on Washington’s nomination on Wednesday, but that vote was postponed. A Republican Senate aide told CNN after the postponed vote that “he was pulled because they don’t have the votes to report him out of committee.”

    Because Republicans remained unified in their opposition to Washington’s prospective leadership, “his nomination is on life support,” the aide said.

    The nomination withdrawal was first reported by Reuters.

    Washington, the current CEO of the Denver International Airport, has held leadership roles at municipal transit organizations, including in Denver and Los Angeles, focused on bus and rail lines. He also led the Biden-Harris transition team for the Department of Transportation. Prior to his work in transportation, Washington served in the military for 24 years.

    While Washington has worked in transportation-related positions since 2000, he had no experience in the aviation industry prior to joining the Denver airport in 2021 – something that became a major concern among committee members.

    Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Saturday highlighted the need for a confirmed FAA administrator as he condemned the “partisan attacks” on Washington.

    “The FAA needs a confirmed Administrator, and Phil Washington’s transportation & military experience made him an excellent nominee. The partisan attacks and procedural obstruction he has faced are undeserved, but I respect his decision to withdraw and am grateful for his service,” Buttigieg said in a tweet.

    The White House will work to select a new nominee to lead the FAA, the official said.

    “Politics must not hold up confirming an Administrator to lead the FAA, and we will move expeditiously to nominate a new candidate for FAA Administrator. We believe the Senate owes it to the American people to swiftly consider and confirm a leader to this key safety agency,” the official said.

    This story has been updated with additional information.

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  • Sen. Mitch McConnell released from physical therapy rehab after fall | CNN Politics

    Sen. Mitch McConnell released from physical therapy rehab after fall | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Saturday that he has been released from an inpatient physical therapy facility after he fell earlier this month and was treated for a concussion and rib fracture.

    “I want to sincerely thank everyone for all the kind wishes. I’m happy to say I finished inpatient physical therapy earlier today and I’m glad to be home,” McConnell said in a statement.

    “I’m going to follow the advice of my physical therapists and spend the next few days working for Kentuckians and the Republican Conference from home. I’m in frequent touch with my Senate colleagues and my staff. I look forward to returning in person to the Senate soon.”

    McConnell will work from his Washington, DC, home this week and is not expected to return to the Senate before the chamber breaks for their two-week recess, a McConnell aide told CNN.

    The Senate minority leader was admitted to a hospital after he tripped and fell at a dinner event earlier this month. He remained in the hospital for several days. After that, he began physical therapy at an inpatient rehabilitation facility.

    Previously, a McConnell aide had said that the length of the 81-year-old Senate Republican leader’s stay at the facility would be decided “by the Leader’s physicians and the therapists.” The aide said, “It is very common to undergo physical therapy to regain strength after a hospital stay and this ranges anywhere from a week to two weeks.”

    Republican senators who have spoken with McConnell have told CNN that he wants to get back to work. Texas Sen. John Cornyn said recently that McConnell is “chomping at the bit” to return to the Capitol, and Senate Minority Whip John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, noted that he was “anxious” to come back.

    This was not McConnell’s first fall. In 2019, he fractured his shoulder in a fall at his home in Kentucky.

    The top Republican is not the only absent senator. Across the aisle, 89-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California has been receiving treatment for shingles at home following a brief stay in the hospital. And Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman is undergoing inpatient treatment for clinical depression at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

    This story has been updated with additional information.

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  • Key lawmakers say upcoming hearings on bank failures aim to boost U.S. confidence in banking sector

    Key lawmakers say upcoming hearings on bank failures aim to boost U.S. confidence in banking sector

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    WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of lawmakers overseeing the recent turmoil in the banking sector said Wednesday that they aim to increase Americans’ confidence in the banking industry after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed over the last two weeks.

    The two House and Senate committees that oversee banking have announced back-to-back hearings next week to examine regulatory lapses that missed signs the banks were in trouble. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin Gruenberg, Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr and Treasury Undersecretary for Domestic Finance Nellie Liang are scheduled to testify at both hearings.

    The high-profile hearings come as lawmakers try to understand what caused the two institutions to fold, and as many Democrats float legislation to bolster safeguards for the financial system. Regulators and lawmakers are also trying to contain further damage to the economy and reinforce confidence in the banking system.

    “My hope is that this first hearing, we can actually get a lot of the information out and establish [the facts],” Rep. Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican and chairman of House Financial Services Committee, said during a summit of the American Bankers Association. “I think this will bring a great deal of certainty and confidence to the market.”

    Last week, the Fed appointed Barr to lead a review of the SVB failure. McHenry said he welcomed the probe and “the other views of financial regulators, as well.”

    The Republican said Congress has a “very important role to play” in reviewing how the banks failed. But he stopped short of calling for legislation to prevent future collapses.

    McHenry said he wanted to ensure the push for legislation matches “the realities of the situation.”

    Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican and ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, also said writing new laws should take a back seat at the hearings to investigating what happened.

    “Unfortunately, in Washington, that’s often what occurs, that those on the committee on the left will talk about Dodd-Frank and the reforms that were done in 2018,” he told the bankers’ group. He was referring to calls in Congress to unwind some of the provisions in the 2018 law that weakened regulatory powers in the landmark 2010 Dodd-Frank law.

    “Nothing could be a clearer red herring than that,” he added.

    Former SVB CEO Greg Becker lobbied lawmakers for certain exclusions from Dodd-Frank. But Scott said regulators already had the authority they needed to safeguard the banking system and failed to do so.

    He also said bank executives had a responsibility to adjust their strategies as the Fed embarked on an aggressive interest rate hiking cycle to stem inflation.

    McHenry also questioned the value of adding new regulatory authority or laws to govern the financial sector.

    “It’s important to note that we can’t regulate competence,” McHenry said. “Management of institutions need to be competent, boards of directors need to be competent. We can’t legislate that either in the financial sector or among financial institutions management, nor with the regulators.”

    Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat and chairman of Senate Banking Committee, compared the SVB collapse to the devastating train crash in East Palestine, Ohio. He said the disaster in his state and the bank failures stemmed in part from companies pushing for fewer regulations and putting less effort into their own safeguards.

    “They have one thing in common: corporate lobbyists pushed for weaker rules, less oversight,” he told the ABA in opening remarks. “Companies cut costs, failed to invest in safety – or perhaps in the case of SVB, were too incompetent to realize they too should care about safety.”

    Brown, who said the congressional hearings can remain “mostly” bipartisan, warned banking lobbyists against using the crisis as a chance to lobby Congress for weaker oversight. He said “we continue to pay the price” when policymakers allow weaker regulations.

    Rep. Maxine Waters, ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, told the ABA that Congress will have to “take a deep dive” into what took place at Silicon Valley Bank. The California Democrat, who has called for legislation to strengthen congressional authority over clawbacks for bank executives, said she is taking a close look at the high rate of uninsured deposits at SVB.

    At the time of its failure, 94% of the bank’s deposits sat above the FDIC’s $250,000 insurance limit.

    “And of course, I’m looking to see whether or not all of the oversight agencies … really did miss the opportunity to see what was happening and to know what was going on with the balance sheet and to be able to correct things before they got to the point of collapse,” Waters said.

    She added that the financial regulators’ quick decision to close SVB and secure customers’ deposits demonstrated the Biden administration’s competence.

    “The way that the FDIC, the Treasury, president, they way that they handled this should be a message to everybody that your government is at work and can solve problems — serious problems — if they are working together,” she said.

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  • House fails to override Biden veto of resolution to overturn investment rule | CNN Politics

    House fails to override Biden veto of resolution to overturn investment rule | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The House of Representatives on Thursday failed to override President Joe Biden’s veto of a measure to overturn a controversial investment rule in a victory for the White House.

    Biden issued the first veto of his presidency Monday on a resolution to overturn a retirement investment rule that allows managers of retirement funds to consider the impact of climate change and other environmental, social and governance factors when picking investments.

    A two-thirds majority vote would have been needed in both chambers of Congress to override the veto – a high threshold to meet. The final vote on the effort to override the veto was 219 to 200.

    Republican lawmakers led the effort to overturn the investment rule, arguing it pushes a liberal agenda on Americans and will hurt retirees’ bottom lines. Democrats argue it’s not about political ideology, it’s not a mandate and it will help investors.

    The resolution, which would rescind a Department of Labor rule, passed both chambers of Congress with Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana voting with Republicans in the Senate.

    Biden argued the GOP-backed measure to overturn the rule would put retirement savings at risk.

    “This bill would risk your retirement savings by making it illegal to consider risk factors MAGA House Republicans don’t like,” Biden tweeted as he announced the veto.

    The veto from Biden reflects the reality of a changed political order in Washington with Republicans now in control of the House after they won back the chamber from Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections.

    Previously, Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate. Now, the president’s party only has a majority in the Senate.

    Most legislation passed by the current GOP-controlled House will not be able to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate. But the resolution to overturn the investment rule only needed a simple majority to pass in the Senate. Republican lawmakers advanced it under the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to roll back regulations from the executive branch without needing to clear the 60-vote threshold in the Senate that is necessary for most legislation.

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  • Senate committee delays vote to consider Biden’s pick to lead the FAA | CNN Politics

    Senate committee delays vote to consider Biden’s pick to lead the FAA | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    A Senate committee has abruptly delayed its vote scheduled for Wednesday to consider President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Federal Aviation Administration, further holding up the long-awaited nomination.

    It’s not yet clear why the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation’s vote to consider Phil Washington’s nomination on Wednesday has been delayed. His pick was first announced by Biden eight months ago and has since faced continued resistance from Republican members of Congress over a number of issues, including his slim aviation-related credentials and his potential legal entanglements.

    Washington Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, the chairwoman of the committee, announced that the vote is “moving to a future date pending information that members have been seeking.” She also underscored that the committee “will have this debate in the future,” contending that Washington is qualified for the job.

    Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the leading Republican on the Senate Commerce committee, said during the panel’s executive session Wednesday, “I am glad to hear that the committee is considering delaying consideration of the nomination of Phil Washington. Phil Washington has been before this committee for some time now. And I think every member of this committee knows that Mr. Washington is not qualified for the position for which he is nominated.”

    The White House is continuing to stand behind Washington following the vote delay.

    “The FAA needs a confirmed Administrator, and the president’s nominee, Phil Washington, has the right qualifications and experience for this role,” a White House official said in a statement to CNN. “He has led the Denver International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world, managed large transportation safety organizations, and served as a command sergeant major in the military. This is a role with a key safety mandate and Mr. Washington’s nomination has been pending for months. We continue to urge the Senate to move swiftly on his confirmation.”

    Ahead of Wednesday’s scrapped vote, a steady stream of groups lined up for and against Washington.

    Aviation worker unions, former transportation secretaries on both sides of the aisle, Denver-based Frontier Airlines and the family members of crash victims who died on Ethiopian Air Flight 302 all endorsed Washington.

    Former Department of Transportation officials who served at the agency during the Trump administration signed onto a letter to the president expressing their opposition to Washington’s confirmation.

    Cruz and Missouri Rep. Sam Graves, the chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, have both expressed their opposition to Washington’s nomination.

    The FAA has been operating without a permanent administrator for a year.

    In that time, the agency has contended with several problems that have plagued travelers and the airline industry, such as recent near-collisions involving airliners, crucial staffing shortages and malfunctions of aging technology that have cause major air travel disruption.

    While Democrats largely seemed supportive during Washington’s confirmation hearing earlier this month, he was grilled by Republican senators on issues that have emerged since he was named as a prospective administrator last summer.

    Washington, the current CEO of the Denver International Airport, has held leadership roles at municipal transit organizations, including in Denver and Los Angeles, focused on bus and rail lines. He also led the Biden-Harris transition team for the Department of Transportation. Prior to his work in transportation, Washington served in the military for 24 years.

    While Washington has worked in transportation-related positions since 2000, he had no experience in the aviation industry prior to joining the Denver airport in 2021 – a major concern among committee members.

    Since being nominated, Washington has also faced questions about being named in a search warrant issued as part of a political corruption investigation in Los Angeles, along with other potential legal entanglements. Republicans have also questioned whether Washington, an Army veteran who left the military in 2000 after more than 20 years of service, would be statutorily considered a civilian – a requirement in order to serve as the FAA chief.

    If he’s not considered a civilian, he would need a waiver from Congress permitting him to lead the agency. And Republicans in both the House and the Senate do not support granting Washington a waiver.

    This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

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  • Treasury Secretary Yellen says not all uninsured deposits will be protected in future bank failures

    Treasury Secretary Yellen says not all uninsured deposits will be protected in future bank failures

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    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 in testimony before the Senate Finance Committee.

    Under questioning, however, Yellen admitted that not all depositors will be protected over the FDIC insurance limits of $250,000 per account as they did for customers of the two failed banks.

    A Silicon Valley Bank office is seen in Tempe, Arizona, on March 14, 2023.

    Rebecca Noble | AFP | Getty Images

    Yellen has been at the center of emergency federal efforts this past week to recover deposits for account holders at two failed banks, the California-based SVB and the crypto-heavy Signature Bank, based in New York.

    A majority of SVB’s customers were small tech companies, venture capital firms and entrepreneurs who used the bank for day-to-day cash management to run their businesses. Those customers had $175 billion on deposit with tens of millions in individual accounts. That left SVB with one of the highest shares of uninsured deposits in the country when it collapsed, with 94% of its deposits landing above the FDIC’s $250,000 insurance limit, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data from 2022.

    CNBC Politics

    Read more of CNBC’s politics coverage:

    U.S. bank regulators announced a plan Sunday to fully insure all deposits at the two failed banks, including those above the $250,000 limit covered by traditional FDIC insurance. The additional protection will be paid for out of a special fund made up of fees levied on all FDIC-insured institutions.

    In addition, the Federal Reserve loosened its borrowing guidelines for banks seeking short-term funding through its so-called discount window. It also set up a separate unlimited facility to offer one-year loans under looser terms than usual to shore up troubled banks facing a surge in cash withdrawals. Both programs are being paid for through industry fees, not by taxpayers, the Biden administration has emphasized.

    “This will help financial institutions meet the needs of all of their depositors,” Yellen said. “This week’s actions demonstrate our resolute commitment to ensure that depositors’ savings remain safe.”

    Democrats and Republicans in Congress have largely supported the emergency actions taken in the past week. But with markets recovering somewhat, lawmakers Thursday questioned Yellen about whether backstops for big banks will become a new norm, and what that could mean for community lenders.

    “I’m concerned about the precedent of guaranteeing all deposits and the market expectation moving forward,” Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, the committee’s ranking member, said in his opening remarks.

    People line up outside of a Silicon Valley Bank office on March 13, 2023 in Santa Clara, California.

    Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

    Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma pressed Yellen about how widely the uninsured deposit backstops will apply across the banking industry.

    “Will the deposits in every community bank in Oklahoma, regardless of their size, be fully insured now?” asked Lankford. “Will they get the same treatment that SVB just got, or Signature Bank just got?”

    Yellen acknowledged they would not.

    Uninsured deposits, she said, would only be covered in the event that a “failure to protect uninsured depositors would create systemic risk and significant economic and financial consequences.”

    Lankford said the impact of this standard would be that small banks would be less appealing to depositors with more than $250,000, the current FDIC insurance threshold.

    U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen takes questions on the Biden administration’s plans following the collapse of three U.S. lenders including Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, as she testifies before a Senate Finance Committee hearing on U.S. President Joe Biden’s proposed budget request for fiscal year 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 16, 2023.

    Mary F. Calvert | Reuters

    “I’m concerned you’re … encouraging anyone who has a large deposit at a community bank to say, ‘We’re not going to make you whole, but if you go to one of our preferred banks, we will make you whole.’”

    “That’s certainly not something that we’re encouraging,” Yellen replied.

    Members of Congress are currently weighing a number of legislative proposals intended to prevent the next Silicon Valley Bank-type failure.

    One of these is an increase in the $250,000 FDIC insurance limit, which several senior Democratic lawmakers have called for in the wake of SVB’s collapse.

    Following the 2008 financial crisis, Congress raised the FDIC limit from $100,000 to $250,000, and approved a plan under which big banks contribute more to the insurance fund than smaller lenders.

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  • Texas veteran who entered Senate chamber in military gear on January 6 sentenced to two years in prison | CNN Politics

    Texas veteran who entered Senate chamber in military gear on January 6 sentenced to two years in prison | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    A US Air Force veteran who entered the Senate chambers in military gear during the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol was sentenced on Friday to two years in prison.

    Larry Brock, 55, was found guilty on six charges, including the felony of obstruction of an official proceeding, during a bench trial in November 2022.

    “It’s really pretty astounding coming from a former high-ranked military officer. It’s astounding and atrocious,” US District Judge John Bates said Friday as he explained his sentence.

    According to prosecutors, Brock walked around the Senate chamber for eight minutes during the Capitol attack, rifling through senators’ desks while wearing a helmet, tactical vest and carrying plastic flex-cuffs he found in the Rotunda that day.

    Prosecutors also allege that Brock attempted to unlock a door that was used minutes earlier by then-Vice President Mike Pence.

    “Brock was a part of a larger mob that stopped the proceeding from taking place,” prosecutor April Ayers-Perez said during sentencing. “They were continuing to stop the proceeding just by being there. Brock was on the Senate floor where they were supposed to be debating Arizona at that very moment.”

    During sentencing, the government also said Brock used extreme rhetoric following the results of the 2020 election. The judge read some of Brock’s social media posts during the hearing, including one that said: “I bought myself body armor and a helmet for a civil war that is coming.”

    “I think it’s fair to say his rhetoric is on the far end of how extreme it is,” Bates said.

    The judge went on to emphasize the seriousness of the Capitol attack before imposing a sentence. “The conduct we are talking about, the events of January 6, were extremely serious. Extremely serious,” he said. “It was a mob, engaged in a riot, and all of that has to be taken serious by the criminal justice system.”

    Brock did not address the court at the advice of his defense attorney, Charles Burnham.

    “He’d love to address the court, but since we are planning on appealing, I’ve asked him to not address the court,” Burnham said.

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  • Lawmakers who struggle and have struggled with mental health see power in ‘telling the story’ | CNN Politics

    Lawmakers who struggle and have struggled with mental health see power in ‘telling the story’ | CNN Politics

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    Editor’s Note: If you or a loved one are facing mental health issues or substance abuse disorders, call The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 or visit SAMHSA’s website for treatment referral and information services.



    CNN
     — 

    In the spring of 2019, Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota was busy putting the finishing touches on a bill that sought to expand mental health care access for kids in schools.

    But she couldn’t shake the feeling she was being less than honest about just how personal the issue of mental health was for her.

    Smith was on the precipice of an election. She had no obligation to open up about her own depression that she says happened twice – once in college and once as a young mom. But in May 2019, on the floor of the US Senate, Smith, delivered a speech about mental health and admitted, “The other reason I want to focus on mental health care while I’m here is that I’m one of them.”

    “I remember being nervous,” Smith recalled of delivering the speech. “I was concerned that people would think that I was trying to like make it be about myself, but once I got beyond that, and I realized that there was power in me telling the story – me particularly being a United States senator, somebody who supposedly has everything all together all the time, then it started to feel really interesting, and I could see right away the value of it.”

    The National Alliance on Mental Illness estimates that one in five adults in the US – nearly 53 million Americans – experience mental illness every year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports more than 50% of Americans will experience mental illness in their lifetime. But for politicians – often far away from home, under high levels of stress and pressure, all risk factors for mental illnesses like depression and anxiety – talking about their own mental health is still a relatively rare admission.

    It’s why in February when Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman announced he was seeking inpatient treatment for clinical depression, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle celebrated not only his decision, but his transparency.

    “It’s tough in politics, there’s a lot of scrutiny, you’re clearly in the public eye a lot. There are consequences to the things you say and talk about, but I think in a circumstance like this, it helps the conversation,” Senate Republican Whip John Thune said. “It helps people realize and understand the impact that this disease has on people across the country.”

    Years after coming forward with her own experience, Smith said she doesn’t have any regrets. In light of the Fetterman news, she feels even more the importance to share.

    “I think that every time a somebody like John or me is open about their own experiences with mental illness or you know, mental health challenges, it just breaks down that wall a little bit more about people saying, ‘Oh, it’s possible to be open and honest and not have the whole world come crashing down on you,’” Smith said.

    It’s been decades since Smith experienced depression, but she said she still remembers so much about that time.

    “I thought I was just off,” Smith said. “Something is wrong with me. I’m not with it. I’m not doing well enough and then you start to sort of blame yourself, and I was sort of in that cycle,” Smith said.

    It was her roommate in college who first suggested she talk to someone. Reluctantly, Smith took herself over to student health services and started talking to a counselor. She said she started to feel better and eventually noticed her depression abated.

    But as Smith tells it, mental health is a continuum and about a decade later, as a young mom with two kids, she found herself experiencing depression once again. At the time, she said she was caught completely off guard.

    “This is the thing that’s so treacherous about depression in particular. You think that the thing that is wrong with you is you,” Smith said. “I’ll never forget my therapist telling me, she said ‘You’re clinically depressed. That’s my diagnosis. I think that you’d benefit from medication to help you.’”

    Smith said she initially resisted. But, after a continued conversation, she agreed to start medication as part of her treatment. She remembers it took time to work, but eventually she noticed a major improvement.

    When she emerged from her depression, Smith was in her early 30s. She said she hasn’t had a resurgence of depression since then, but that she does pay very close attention to her mental health now.

    There are 535 members of Congress and just a handful of them have shared personal stories related to mental illness. Most of those who have talked about their experiences publicly are Democrats. Most of the men who have shared their stories talk about them in the context of military service. In part, it’s a risk for lawmakers to get too personal. The history of reactions to politicians being open about their mental illness has been checkered in the last several decades.

    “People still remember Tom Eagleton,” Smith told CNN.

    In 1972, Eagleton was newly selected to be the running mate for Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern. He admitted to being treated for clinical depression and receiving electroshock therapy. Days later, he withdrew from the ticket even as he continued to serve for years in the Senate.

    Memories of those kinds of episodes impact members in how they approach talking about mental health, even in recent memory.

    “When I was in Congress, I did everything I could to keep everybody from finding out that I needed help,” former Rep. Patrick Kennedy told CNN.

    Kennedy represented Rhode Island in Congress from 1995 to 2011. He suffered from addiction and bipolar disorder. While he was there in 2006, he crashed his green Mustang convertible into a barrier outside the Capitol in the early morning. Following the crash, he pointed to sleeping pills as the culprit and checked himself into the Mayo Clinic for treatment.

    “And is the case with anybody with these illnesses is it is the worst kept secret in town and you are often the last one to realize in what bad shape you are. People won’t tell it to your face because you are a member of Congress, your staff is walking around on eggshells,” Kennedy said.

    “When I did go to treatment. I kind of did it after I had been revealed to be in trouble like I’d gotten in a car accident.”

    But when he got back, Kennedy heard from many colleagues about their own struggles with issues related to mental health.

    Kennedy predicts when Fetterman returns to the Senate, that might also happen to him.

    “I think he is going to have our colleagues from both the House and the Senate look for him in order to tell him what is going on with them. He’s the only one they know,” Kennedy said. “While stigma is going away, there is a less forgiving attitude toward people who suffer from mental illness and addiction.”

    The aftermath of January 6, 2021, was another moment where the conversation around mental health started to shift on the Hill. Suddenly, members and their staff had undergone a traumatic and shared experience in the workplace.

    Democratic Rep. Sara Jacobs of California was just four days into being a new member of Congress on January 6th when she was trapped in the gallery above the House floor with several other members of her party. The experience – the sound of gas masks being deployed, the frenzy to escape, the echo of a gunshot – left her reeling. Jacobs said she considered herself well positioned to seek help. She already had a therapist. But, she noticed some of her older colleagues didn’t have the same tools.

    “I remember actually, after January 6, talking to some of my colleagues here who were a bit older and encouraging them to seek therapy and to get help because it was just something that that wasn’t as accustomed for them,” she said.

    The group of lawmakers who were trapped in the gallery also sought therapy together via Zoom and kept in touch via a text chain.

    For Jacobs, the trauma of January 6 manifested itself in unexpected ways. Suddenly, fireworks – something she once loved – were triggering. Loud people chanting or gathering somewhere made her tense up. She said a lot of her colleagues also dealt with anger, “lots of anger toward colleagues who went back that night and continued to deny the election.”

    When her brother got married in the fall and had fireworks, she had to excuse herself to another room because “it was stressing my body, my nervous system so much.”

    Rep. Dan Kildee, a Democrat from Michigan, also came forward after January 6 to talk about his battle with post-traumatic stress disorder after that day.

    It wasn’t easy.

    “There is still a stigma. People still make their own judgments and that was one of the reasons I decided to talk about it so that people would see that it can happen to anybody. You just have to get the care that you need.”

    “Not everybody was accepting when I sought treatment. My former opponent ridiculed it,” Kildee said.

    For Jacobs, who has been taking medication for anxiety and depression since 2013, stories like Fetterman’s are a sign that maybe the discussions around mental health are beginning to change on the Hill and maybe even in the rest of the country.

    “I think there’s absolutely a generational divide. And there’s also a gender divide and that’s why I think it’s so incredibly brave that Fetterman not only got the treatment needed, but talk about it,” Jacobs told CNN. “I think for me as a young woman, I spent a lot of time with my friends and peers talking about mental health, talking about therapists and what we’re learning in therapy, but I know that that is not something that other generations really have felt open to do.”

    It’s not clear, ultimately, how Fetterman’s openness around his mental health will impact the Hill going forward. It’s not clear what resonance it will have in the rest of the country or even back home for voters. But for lawmakers who’ve taken steps already to share their stories, there is some hope that it could make a major difference.

    “It doesn’t take a statistician to tell you that of the 100 of us in the United States Senate, mental health issues are going to have touched every single one of us in one way or another,” Smith said. “I think it gives people some permission to maybe speak a little bit more openly about it.”

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