Mary Kate Whalen, the president of the Senior Executives Association, says Congress should write civil service reforms into law, starting with a new commission.

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New guidance advances President Donald Trump’s agenda to “prevent woke AI” in the federal government.

© Getty Images/Iurii Motov

"We're seeing higher demand from constituents for that level of support from their elected leaders than ever before," said Anne Meeker.

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"I do think that spending is going to be pretty top of mind," said Loren Duggan.

© AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has advanced a voluntary federal registration pathway for crypto exchanges, Chairman Mike Selig has said, as Congress has yet to enact a crypto market-structure law. In an Oct. 26 X post, Mike Selig said…

"When you lose a lot of federal government employees, especially the more senior ones, you're losing a lot of institutional knowledge," said Rep. Glenn Ivey.

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Bitcoin Magazine

Stand With Crypto Director: The Crypto Vote Will Decide the Midterms | Mason Lynaugh

The midterms are November 3, and a shift in congressional power could reshape Bitcoin and crypto policy for years. Mason Lynaugh, Executive Director of Stand With Crypto, joins Grace Remington and Sean Hagan to break down the final push: 3.1 million advocates, 50 state chapters, 47 college chapters and 45 endorsed candidates. He explains why crypto voters are the low-propensity swing bloc campaigns spend millions to find, why the Clarity Act and GENIUS Act votes prove the issue is bipartisan, and why he expects the most pro-Bitcoin Congress in history no matter who wins.

Stand with Crypto: Check your registration, find your state’s deadline, and see where your candidates stand on crypto in one place: https://www.standwithcrypto.org/vote

Chapters:
0:00 Stand With Crypto’s Final Push: 3.1 Million Advocates and 45 Endorsed Candidates
1:18 The Voter Hub and Making the Next Congress the Most Pro-Bitcoin in History
2:12 Why Crypto Voters Are the Low-Propensity Swing Vote Campaigns Want
3:16 Tight Races Decided by Hundreds of Votes and Tens of Thousands of Advocates
4:08 Bipartisan Support: 100 Democrats on the Clarity Act and the GENIUS Act Vote
5:03 From 90 to 338 A-Rated Lawmakers in Three Years
5:44 Why Some Democrats Still Oppose Crypto and How Skeptics Come Around
7:32 Give Them a Job or Take It Away: Organizing Against Anti-Bitcoin Lawmakers
9:28 Fair Shake’s $95 Million vs. Volunteer Phone Calls
11:05 The GENIUS Act Rollout, Clarity Act Disappointment and Why AI Advocates Are Allies

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BTC Inc., Bitcoin Magazine, or any affiliated entities. This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Nothing contained in this show constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments. Viewers should consult their own advisors before making financial or business decisions.

This post Stand With Crypto Director: The Crypto Vote Will Decide the Midterms | Mason Lynaugh first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Patrick Green.

Bitcoin Magazine

Blockchain Association Presses Congress on Crypto Taxes as Clarity Act Stalls

The Blockchain Association sent a letter to Senate and House leadership on Thursday asking Congress to pass bipartisan digital asset tax legislation, the group’s first broad push on taxes since the Clarity Act failed in the Senate last month.

The letter, signed by Chief Policy Officer Lindsay Fraser and addressed to Majority Leader John Thune, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, argues that the rules governing the 67 million Americans who hold digital assets “were written for a different era.” 

The group paired it with a new site, TaxClarityforAmerica.com, built for constituents to contact their representatives.

The asks will sound familiar to anyone who has followed the tax fight: a de minimis exemption for small transactions, cash treatment for stablecoins, tax on mining and staking rewards at sale instead of receipt, broker reporting limited to firms that hold customer assets, and wash sale rules that close loss harvesting without catching everyday transactions. 

The letter adds a safe harbor for foreign traders on U.S. exchanges, a mark-to-market election, and R&D credit eligibility for blockchain development. What the letter leaves out is an endorsement. Two bills are somewhat in play, and the association named neither.

Where the tax bills stand

The House moved first. One day after the Clarity Act failed in the Senate, the Ways and Means Committee approved the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, H.R. 10357, a 114-page package from Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO). It exempts network fees under $10 from capital gains reporting, with a carve-out for taxpayers who made more than 5,000 transfers in the prior year, and extends wash sale and constructive sale rules to digital assets. Qualified dollar stablecoins are exempt from the wash sale rule.

The package left out the provision the industry wanted most. Rep. Mike Carey’s Tax Clarity for Mining and Staking Act, H.R. 9175, which would have let miners and stakers defer tax until they sell, was in an early discussion draft and gone from the text the committee released on September 14. Instead the bill classifies validation rewards as ordinary income, taxable on receipt. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), who had proposed capping the deferral at five years, voted for the package and said it leaves the question open for further work.

The Blockchain Association, Crypto Council for Innovation and Digital Chamber had asked the committee in June to pass that bill without changes. The committee did the opposite.

The Senate has its own version. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) introduced the ADAPT Act on September 30 with Sens. Cynthia Lummis, Bernie Moreno and Tim Scott as cosponsors. It exempts purchases made with GENIUS Act stablecoins from gain or loss, sets the same $10 fee threshold, and applies wash sale rules with grandfathering for existing holdings and exemptions for mining and staking rewards. It sits in committee. 

Lummis’s earlier bill, S. 2207, with a $300 per-transaction de minimis exemption capped at $5,000 a year, has been in the Finance Committee since June 2025.

Neither chamber’s bill contains the exemption for small bitcoin purchases that the industry made a centerpiece at Bitcoin 2026. The House bill’s $10 threshold covers fees, not purchases. The Senate bill’s spending exemption covers stablecoins, not bitcoin. 

The Bitcoin Policy Institute and others have argued that any de minimis rule should cover bitcoin, and Thursday’s letter asks for a “meaningful” exemption without naming a figure.

Awkward timing

Congress is in recess until after the November 3 midterms. When members return, they will have a lame-duck session measured in weeks, and crypto taxes compete with government funding and whatever else leadership decides to clear before the 119th Congress ends. 

Lummis, the Senate’s loudest voice on digital asset taxes, retires in January 2027.

The Clarity Act’s collapse shapes all of this. The market structure bill passed the House 294-134 in July 2025, then stalled in the Senate for more than a year while the banking lobby fought the crypto industry over stablecoin yield and Democrats pressed for ethics language aimed at the Trump family’s crypto ventures. 

The cloture vote on September 15 failed 49-50. No Democrat crossed over, and Republicans Susan Collins, Josh Hawley and Jerry Moran voted no. Sen. Thom Tillis switched his vote so he could file a motion to reconsider, which keeps the bill alive on paper and little more.

With market structure off the table, the industry has shifted its lobbying to what might move. Tax is the obvious candidate: the House package cleared committee with bipartisan votes, and the wash sale provisions raise revenue, which gives tax writers a reason to attach them to a larger vehicle. Punchbowl News reported Thursday that the association’s refusal to back either bill signals the industry wants more than what Congress has produced.

Regulators keep filling the gap in the meantime. The OCC issued its final GENIUS Act rule on Wednesday, and the SEC and CFTC have been setting market structure policy through rulemaking and enforcement in the absence of a statute.

This post Blockchain Association Presses Congress on Crypto Taxes as Clarity Act Stalls first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

SBA has not fully analyzed how the relocations will affect public-facing services or the possibility of employees quitting.

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The lawmakers want to know whether DoD will disqualify contractors that refuse to provide necessary cost and pricing data.

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"I think the one I would hone in on as most questionable for a number of reasons is space-based interceptors," said Michael O'Hanlon.

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Sen. Peters said recent reporting and the agency's lack of cooperation with its inspector general cast doubt on DHS's management of funding.

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"You shouldn't measure the effectiveness of a Congress based on the number of hearings they hold," said Tim Stretton.

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The bill targets federal properties and facilities across the country that are in areas that do not meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone.

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"A lot of Republicans are finally saying, wait a second, I don't think we can go in on every single thing that the president wants to do," said Mitchell Miller.

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"Members of Congress face very strong incentives to not do their job, which leads to this underperformance," said Kevin Kosar.

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FAA's use of AI and a shortage of air traffic controllers is raising safety concerns from House Democrats, who are calling for an oversight review.

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"This kind of cuts both ways for American companies that are looking to benefit from Buy America rules," Dan Ramish said.

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The Pentagon is pursuing at least $350 billion more for defense “regardless of what happens” in the midterm elections on Nov. 3, the secretary said.

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"Even if Congress isn't taking action immediately, I think that this is a a trend and a pattern that we could see a lot of discussion about," said Loren Duggan.

© AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite