Winter funding fight brewing

Savannah, I want to start with you because the Senate is coming back.

The Senate's been gone for a long time now.

I mean, the House has taken probably a little bit more time off than the Senate overall, but the Senate now is back for the first time since early August.

First really big item out of the gate is the crypto bill, the crypto market structure bill they're talking about.

Senator Thune, the majority leader, has said he's a little skeptical that that's going to pass.

But there's been some developments on that over the last 24, 48 hours that could make tomorrow's vote, a procedural vote, quite interesting.

They need to get 60 votes and we're not, no one's quite sure how that's going to go.

The leader has said that if they cannot get onto that bill, they're going to go to the college sports bill, the name image likeness bill, which he thinks there's a good chance of passage.

although the House has got some hangups with that version of the bill.

Thune has also said, this was kind of a surprise, I think, to a lot of people last week when he was in Dallas at the midterm convention, that he said the permitting overhaul bill, the energy infrastructure permitting bill, this has been a years-long effort, has really never, has not been able to go anywhere.

You haven't been able to get the two sides together.

Senator Thune thinks there's a real chance of that happening now.

So can any or all of those things get done in the current political climate Which is, you know, all the handicappers are saying right now the Senate's got, you know, it looks like maybe on the north of 50% chance the Democrats could take back the chamber.

Right, which would be a big surprise because I think that most of us are expecting that Democrats will take back the House just given the political climate.

But I don't think even a few months ago you saying Democrats taking back the Senate, that would have even been something that was plausible.

And like you had started out with, Clarity Act, this crypto bill that Senator Lemus has been working on, she released last night a new version of it that had a new ethics provision that would bar public officials from issuing or sponsoring digital assets.

And this has been really big for Democrats to kind of clean up some of the language there as they've been really concerned with President Trump and his family and how much money that they've made off of some of their digital currencies.

I think it's north of like $1 billion from last year.

So that is an improvement for Democrats.

But I think that there is still some sticking points about some of the high yield interests there and some of the banks.

Right, the banks

concerned.

Right.

And them wanting some greater clarity there and competition concerns with some smaller banks as well.

So like you had noted, tomorrow's vote is going to be a huge test vote on if they can get 60 on that.

Savannah, I want to start with you because the Senate is coming back.

The Senate's been gone for a long time now.

I mean, the House has taken probably a little bit more time off than the Senate overall, but the Senate now is back for the first time since early August.

First really big item out of the gate is the crypto bill, the crypto market structure bill they're talking about.

Senator Thune, the majority leader, has said he's a little skeptical that that's going to pass.

But there's been some developments on that over the last 24, 48 hours that could make tomorrow's vote, a procedural vote, quite interesting.

They need to get 60 votes and we're not, no one's quite sure how that's going to go.

The leader has said that if they cannot get onto that bill, they're going to go to the college sports bill, the name image likeness bill, which he thinks there's a good chance of passage.

although the House has got some hangups with that version of the bill.

Thune has also said, this was kind of a surprise, I think, to a lot of people last week when he was in Dallas at the midterm convention, that he said the permitting overhaul bill, the energy infrastructure permitting bill, this has been a years-long effort, has really never, has not been able to go anywhere.

You haven't been able to get the two sides together.

Senator Thune thinks there's a real chance of that happening now.

So can any or all of those things get done in the current political climate Which is, you know, all the handicappers are saying right now the Senate's got, you know, it looks like maybe on the north of 50% chance the Democrats could take back the chamber.

Right, which would be a big surprise because I think that most of us are expecting that Democrats will take back the House just given the political climate.

But I don't think even a few months ago you saying Democrats taking back the Senate, that would have even been something that was plausible.

And like you had started out with, Clarity Act, this crypto bill that Senator Lemus has been working on, she released last night a new version of it that had a new ethics provision that would bar public officials from issuing or sponsoring digital assets.

And this has been really big for Democrats to kind of clean up some of the language there as they've been really concerned with President Trump and his family and how much money that they've made off of some of their digital currencies.

I think it's north of like $1 billion from last year.

So that is an improvement for Democrats.

But I think that there is still some sticking points about some of the high yield interests there and some of the banks.

Right, the banks

concerned.

Right.

And them wanting some greater clarity there and competition concerns with some smaller banks as well.

So like you had noted, tomorrow's vote is going to be a huge test vote on if they can get 60 on that.