Claire Williams

The Federal Reserve chair appears before the House Financial Services Committee for his first of two days of testimony on Capitol Hill this week, part of his biannual monetary policy report to Congress.

House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill, R-Ark., declined to say whether he would pass the Senate's GENIUS Act without making his own changes, as President Trump has preferred.

President Donald Trump has signed a Congressional Review Act resolution that eliminates the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's Biden-era rules requiring stricter reviews of bank mergers and a time-out clock for some institutions.

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has ruled that Republicans cannot move ahead with slashing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding and Federal Reserve staff pay in the tax bill.

A group of more than 50 bipartisan financial experts, including former Fed Chairs Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen, said that effectively eliminating the Office of Financial Research and weakening the Financial Stability Oversight Council would have devastating effects for the financial system.

The legislation has been able to garner a level of bipartisan support that was not possible in previous Congresses because of a lack of support from Democratic lawmakers, but many of those benefited from crypto industry contributions in the 2024 election cycle. 

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, signed a bill that delays the implementation of the interchange law for a year while banks fight it in court.

As the Senate stands poised to pass a landmark bill establishing rules for stablecoin issuers, a provision allowing state-chartered uninsured banks to operate in states without prior approval is drawing concern from observers and opposition from state regulators.

The Senate voted 68-30 to invoke cloture on the GENIUS Act, which aims to regulate stablecoins, including backing from all Republicans and 18 Democratic lawmakers.

The House Financial Services Committee passed a crypto oversight bill in a 32-19 vote, as well as several other bills bankers support, including one to curtail abusive trigger leads in mortgage lending, in a lengthy markup.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., filed for cloture and filled the amendment tree on the stablecoin bill, effectively closing the path for the credit card legislation offered by Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., that would address credit card swipe fees.

A forthcoming bill from Sens. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., would allow the Federal Housing Finance Agency director to set limits on executive pay at the Federal Home Loan banks.

The Banking Committee's portion of the Senate budget bill would eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's ability to request funding from the Federal Reserve, a move that goes further than House Republicans' version of the bill.

The National Conference of State Legislatures asked that leading lawmakers strike a provision in the Senate stablecoin bill that they say would preempt state authority to bar state-chartered special purpose depository institutions from operating in their state.

The Senate voted to confirm Federal Reserve Gov. Michelle Bowman's nomination to be the vice chair for supervision at the central bank in a 48-46 party-line vote.

House lawmakers discussed the recently introduced market structure bill, with Democrats expressing concerns that the bill could enable banks to evade securities laws.

Elon Musk, formerly head of the Department of Government Efficiency, said he will officially leave the federal government after a short but tumultuous tenure. DOGE's actions at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are being reviewed in federal court.

In a dramatic move, conservative hardliners blocked President Donald Trump's tax and spending bill, which would have included many measures favored by banks.

Banks scored well in the tax bill out of Ways and Means this week, with wins on S Corps and rural lending, but have so far lost out on credit union taxes and additional burdens on payments competitors.

Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren is pushing the Department of Justice to use its power to halt the deal, already approved by bank regulators.