The Weekly Hill Update

By Adam Higgins on March 27, 2023 Posted in The Weekly Hill Update

Below is this week’s congressional update by BakerHostetler’s Federal Policy team. We’ll continue to post in weeks when both chambers of Congress are in session.

HEADLINES

A busy congressional schedule with over 100 committee meetings includes several cabinet secretaries, as well as hearings on two charged issues: turmoil in the banking sector, and the East Palestine rail disaster.
President Joe Biden will host the 2023 Summit for Democracy.
The House will take up Republicans’ signature energy legislation.

The Weekly Hill Update

By Adam Higgins on March 20, 2023 Posted in The Weekly Hill Update

Below is this week’s congressional update by BakerHostetler’s Federal Policy team. We’ll continue to post in weeks when both chambers of Congress are in session.

HEADLINES

The Senate is expected to approve legislation to repeal authorizations of military force against Iraq from 1991 and 2002.
The congressional hearing schedule includes visits from several members of President Joe Biden’s cabinet, as well as TikTok CEO Shou Chew.
Biden will make his first visit to Canada as president.

The Weekly Hill Update

By Adam Higgins on March 6, 2023 Posted in The Weekly Hill Update

Below is this week’s congressional update by BakerHostetler’s Federal Policy team. We’ll continue to post in weeks when both chambers of Congress are in session.

HEADLINES

The Senate is expected to vote to strike down the District of Columbia’s controversial new criminal code, sending the resolution to President Biden, who has indicated he will sign it.
The White House will release the president’s annual budget Thursday.
The congressional hearing schedule is extremely busy, including an appearance by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and two by Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell.

The Weekly Hill Update

By Adam Higgins on February 27, 2023 Posted in The Weekly Hill Update

Below is this week’s congressional update by BakerHostetler’s Federal Policy team. We’ll continue to post in weeks when both chambers of Congress are in session.

HEADLINES

The congressional committee schedule is highlighted by foreign affairs, as Congress returns from recess following the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
President Joe Biden will meet with the Democratic caucuses in both chambers.
Later in the week, Biden will host German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the White House for the first time since just before the Russian invasion.

Crypto Exchange Kraken Settles SEC Action and Agrees to Pay $30M Fine and Shutter U.S. Crypto Staking Service

By Teresa Goody Guillén, Veronica Reynolds, Michelle Tanney and J'Naia Boyd on February 16, 2023 Posted in Blockchain

According to the SEC’s complaint, Kraken offered and sold its staking[1] services to the general public in which participants could transfer crypto assets to Kraken in exchange for “advertised annual investment returns of as much as 21%” (the Kraken Staking Program). The SEC alleges that this Kraken Staking Program enabled Kraken to achieve a competitive advantage in the staking marketplace because Kraken pooled various participants’ crypto assets and staked them on behalf of the participants, thus earning higher returns than if the participants staked the same crypto assets on their own. By pooling and controlling the tokens, Kraken is alleged to have reduced its transaction costs and risks and, in the case of tokens actually staked by Kraken, increased the likelihood that Kraken itself would be selected to validate blockchain transactions, for which they would earn rewards. Accordingly, the SEC’s complaint alleges that investors lost control of the staked tokens and were provided “very little protection” in exchange for the outsized returns.

Read the full alert here.

New Congressional Subcommittees Foreshadow Pending Digital Asset Legislation

By Kevin Edgar, Teresa Goody Guillén, Michelle Tanney and Veronica Reynolds on February 13, 2023 Posted in Alert

Two congressional committees of the U.S. House of Representatives commenced the new year by announcing the creation of new subcommittees for the 118th Congress that are expected to analyze issues concerning cryptocurrency and digital assets. The creation of these subcommittees signals the potential for legislative action in the wake of jurisdictional uncertainty regarding federal agency regulation and enforcement of these assets.

Real full alert.

The Weekly Hill Update

By Adam Higgins on February 6, 2023 Posted in The Weekly Hill Update

Below is this week’s congressional update by BakerHostetler’s Federal Policy team. We’ll continue to post in weeks when both chambers of Congress are in session.

HEADLINES

President Joe Biden on Tuesday will fulfill his constitutional obligation to “give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”
Washington is in a furor over China sending a surveillance balloon over the United States and the White House’s handling of the incursion and the decision to shoot it down.
Following his State of the Union address, Biden and his cabinet will fan out across the country, including presidential visits to Wisconsin and Florida, to promote his economic agenda.

The Weekly Hill Update

By Adam Higgins on January 30, 2023 Posted in The Weekly Hill Update

Below is this week’s congressional update by BakerHostetler’s Federal Policy team. We’ll continue to post in weeks when both chambers of Congress are in session.

HEADLINES

President Joe Biden on Wednesday will meet with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, their first face-to-face meeting in an already-contentious showdown over raising the debt limit.
The 118th Congress continues its slow start, with committees in both chambers finally holding organizational meetings as the calendar turns to February.
Biden is traveling the East Coast this week to tout progress on his domestic agenda.

The Weekly Hill Update

By Adam Higgins on January 23, 2023 Posted in The Weekly Hill Update

HEADLINES

Below is this week’s congressional update by BakerHostetler’s Federal Policy team. We’ll continue to post in weeks when both chambers of Congress are in session.

The 118th Congress is up and running for the first full week that both chambers are in session.
The House will take up legislation that would prohibit the Secretary of Energy from tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for nonemergency reasons until establishing a plan to increase oil and gas production on federal lands and waters.
President Joe Biden will host a reception for new members of Congress, as well as a reception to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

Overview of the Inflation Reduction Act’s Methane Tax

By Poe Leggette and Bailey A. Bridges on January 13, 2023 Posted in Energy

Part I of this three-part methane update discussed the state of substantive methane regulation in the United States and touched on the Inflation Reduction Act’s (“IRA” or “the Act”) addition of Section 136 to the Clean Air Act. This Part II covers Section 136’s first-ever federal “charge on methane emissions[.]” Part III will cover currently proposed changes to the substantive regulation of methane emissions.

Read the alert.