Latest news with #CortezMasto
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Senate Dems unveil their answer on Medicaid fraud
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., will release Senate Democrats' answer to Republican efforts to combat Medicaid and Medicare fraud as part of the GOP's sweeping tax-and-spending bill. A discussion draft crafted by the Nevada Democrat and shared with Semafor would boost funding for the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program, which recovered $11 for every $1 it spent in 2022, and expand it to oversee all Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services programs, including the Affordable Care Act's health insurance marketplace. The centerpiece of a larger suite of proposals Senate Democrats will announce today, it's 'exactly what our agencies need to root out real fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid while protecting Americans' access to care,' Cortez Masto said. Its release comes as congressional Republicans continue their push to pass their package by July 4.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cortez Masto grills Burgum on public land sales proposal for Senate's funding bill
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto asked for details about a federal plan to sell 2 million acres of public lands, but U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum didn't have answers on Wednesday. At a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, Cortez Masto wanted to know more about Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee's reported plan to revive attempts to sell off public lands. Lee is the chairman of the committee. Burgum confirmed it was under consideration, but had no other information. A similar plan that Nevada Republican Rep. Mark Amodei attached to the 'one big, beautiful bill' in a late-night U.S. House committee vote eventually failed because it wasn't supported by Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, who served as Interior secretary during Trump's first term. Now the battle has moved to the U.S. Senate. Despite follow-up questions from Cortez Masto, Burgum couldn't provide details or identify anyone in Nevada who the administration is working with to ensure land sales actually meet the needs of the local communities. Burgum said he was 'not actively engaged' in negotiations, according to a news release from Cortez Masto's office. 'I'm asking you because we have not seen anything,' Cortez Masto said. 'The chairman has (the proposal), it is behind closed doors. I would assume you would be talking … because you're going to be taking the lead as the lead agency. So if you don't know, I'm really concerned and we should all be concerned across the West.' Last week, speculation grew around what Lee would propose in the Senate. Public lands in Nevada and Utah appear to be likely targets. Cortez Masto pressed Burgum on how these public lands might figure into helping to solve Nevada's affordable housing crisis, but Democrats have widely described the land sale as an attempt to fund renewal of President Donald Trump's 2017 tax breaks that are about to expire. She also criticized Burgum over his statements regarding the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act (SNPLMA). Burgum talked about the importance of a comprehensive process like SNPLMA as a model for federal land sales earlier in the hearing, Cortez Masto's office said. BLM auction brings $16 million for 8 parcels across Las Vegas valley 'You talk about the benefits (of this model), but in action you're not doing it,' she said. 'In fact, on the House side — and I'm assuming they worked with the administration — their reconciliation package included federal land sales … that weren't even near areas where you could actually do affordable housing.' She said Amodei's amendment would have sold land in the middle of the desert. 'There's no infrastructure. I don't know any builder who is going to build housing in the middle of the desert, it makes no sense,' Cortez Masto said. SNPLMA has provided funds for parks, recreation and water infrastructure in Nevada, but the federal government has been criticized as too slow to free up lands needed to build more housing. A compromise struck by the Bureau of Land Management under Joe Biden allowed the sale of land for $100 an acre, which would have paved the way for affordable housing construction. But that price also drastically reduced the amount of money flowing to parks through BLM land auctions. Later Wednesday, U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he would cancel the July 4 recess week to complete work on the 'one big, beautiful bill.' It's unclear if Republicans have the support to pass the reconciliation spending package. And even if it passes with public land sales included, the changes would be subject to approval in the House, where Zinke has said he will be a firm 'no.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Bloomberg
05-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Sen. Cortez Masto on Tax Bill, Elon Musk, Travel Ban
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D) Nevada shares her thoughts on how the tax bill could be effected by the ongoing feud between President Trump and Elon Musk. Senator Cortez Masto states it's important to kill the bill, discusses her concerns over Elon Musk having access to important and sensitive information, and talks about the President's newest travel ban. She speaks with Kailey Leinz and Joe Mathieu on the late edition of Bloomberg's "Balance of Power." (Source: Bloomberg)
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Nevada businesses hit by tourism drop from tariffs
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto said it is currently crunch time for the National Park Service, small businesses, and the travel industry in Nevada. Cortez Masto held a press conference Thursday at Wetlands Park to discuss the decline in tourism and funding, which she attributes to the Trump Administration's tariffs. 'We are seeing a negative impact on families across the state. From food to energy, healthcare costs, clothing, you name it,' Senator Cortez Masto added. According to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, the Administration is keeping Americans from being taken advantage of. 'The President's trade policy will continue, and we will comply with the courts' orders,' Leavitt shared. As for outdoor recreation, places like Lake Mead and Red Rock, among others, draw $8.1 billion to Nevada's economy annually. Mandi Elliott, with Nevada Outdoor Business Coalition, said it is hurting businesses like rental company Basecamp Outdoor Gear, which caters to travelers and their outdoor belongings. 'The drop in tourism is affecting their bottom line, and with the tariff increase, there's a lot of uncertainty for their small business. It's not as simple to just buy all your materials from the U.S. The cost is extreme, and most can't keep up,' Elliott added. On Thursday, a federal appeals court ruled that President Donald Trump's tariffs can continue until a final ruling is made. This counteracts a ruling a day earlier from the court of international trade that blocked the tariffs. The appeals court said the President can levy tariffs using the emergency powers he declared earlier this year. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Of all the U.S. senators, Nevada's should know better than to coddle crypto
Website screenshot of World Liberty Financial, the Trump family cryptocurrency company. This month an investment firm connected to the Abu Dhabi royal family announced it was using the WLF's USD1 stablecoin to make a $2 billion investment in a crypto exchange. Neither Catherine Cortez Masto nor Jacky Rosen were in the U.S. Senate when the Commodity Futures Modernization Act was passed a quarter century ago. But both were in Nevada when Las Vegas was an epicenter for the wildly irresponsible mortgage backed derivatives market that did so much to cause the Great Recession that hit Nevada harder and longer than any other state. The Commodity Futures Modernization Act is what deregulated and hence led to the explosion — and then implosion — of the derivatives market. Which is to say of all the U.S. senators, the two from Nevada should be especially wary of approving weak federal regulations that promote the growth of exotic financial instruments because an industry told them to. And yet here we go again. Early this week, Cortez Masto and Rosen were among 16 Senate Democrats voting with all the Republicans to advance the GENIUS Act, a Trump-endorsed gift to the cryptocurrency industry. Crypto-folk are eager to see the bill enacted in the current Congress because they fear Democrats will regain control of the U.S. House in next year's midterm elections, the industry's window of opportunity will close, and the legislation will never make it to Trump's desk. (The industry may be underestimating congressional Democratic inclination to curry favor with, or at least try not to upset, extremely deep-pocketed industry political action committees, but I digress). The legislation will promote the growth of a particular strain of cryptocurrency, stablecoin, by accelerating its integration with the U.S. financial system, while exempting it from regulatory requirements and consumer protections administered by (what's left of) the Securities and Exchange Commission. Earlier this month, all the Senate Democrats, joined by two Republicans, temporarily blocked the legislation. At the time, Democrats cited the bill's failure to rein in the ongoing and unprecedented level of White House corruption made possible by Donald Trump and his family's entry into the cryptocurrency industry, including stablecoin, enabling billionaires, dictators, and unsavory characters worldwide to enrich Trump in exchange for favors right there on their phones. Yet the slightly revised version of the legislation Cortez Masto, Rosen and 14 other Senate Democrats accepted Monday 'does nothing—nothing—to rein in the President's crypto corruption,' said Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren in a floor speech rallying a majority of her fellow Democrats to vote against the legislation. 'This is not the first time Congress listened to the financial industry and created a weak regulatory regime for a new, innovative financial product,' Warren warned her colleagues. 'We've seen this story before, and we know how it ends.' Warren, whose sharp critique of policies that led to the Great Recession heightened her national profile in the late aughts, reminded the senators of the Commodities Futures Modernization Act which passed during the last year of the Clinton Administration. At that time people said 'surely some kind of regulatory framework was better than nothing,' Warren noted, 'so Congress created a weak set of rules that was loaded with loopholes – just as the industry wanted. The result was a disaster: derivatives moved from the edge of the financial system to the center of it.' 'Now we are back, doing the same thing yet again,' Warren said. As if underscoring Warren's point — that people are yet again saying something's better than nothing — Cortez Masto said in a statement provided by her office Wednesday that Congress needs 'to do more to regulate cryptocurrencies' and the GENIUS Act is 'the first step to ensure stablecoins issued in the United States are not used to scam or defraud people or facilitate illicit finance, while also providing regulatory clarity our domestic industry needs to innovate here at home.' Similarly, Rosen's office provided a statement Wednesday saying cryptocurrency 'is an emerging industry that is in urgent need of regulation' and Rosen 'voted to advance bipartisan legislation to open the door for regulating cryptocurrency. This bill is not the only action Congress should take on crypto regulation, but it is an important step to protect consumers and support America's innovation.' Both statements from Nevada's senators echo the industry narrative, also fully embraced by Trump, that stablecoin and other variations of crypto are a vital innovation that must be promoted in the name of the national interest. And both statements, again echoing the industry narrative, fail to clearly explain why that is. Cryptocurrency is undoubtedly a growth industry. But as it increasingly integrates into the financial system, one signature characteristic it brings along is extreme volatility. (Related note: Coinbase, the leading crypto exchange, became the first exchange to be added to the S&P 500 this week, so there's a good chance crypto is now in your retirement fund.) In addition to volatility — and of course crypto bros, who will be convening in Las Vegas next week for the Super Bowl of crypto — cryptocurrency is also famous for money laundering and fraud schemes. (On comparably rare occasions it also serves its long ago originally advertised use, as a legitimate alternative form of payment for a product or a service.) But far and away its largest use is as just another speculative investment, like, oh, orange juice futures, except with no correlation to anything that exists in the material world; for breakfast, nobody orders a glass of fresh squeezed hype. When members of Congress talk about innovation and, as Rosen put it, 'an emerging industry,' they are implying there is some magical but practical and immensely useful economic function only crypto can do. Meanwhile, the wider world awaits clearly articulated instruction on what indispensable (yet legal) thing crypto can do that oldy timey money can't, and why it isn't doing it already. To be fair, there is one function that, while not new or unique — every industry does it — is something the crypto industry has proven it can do uniquely well: Raise money to spend against candidates that don't support the industry's agenda. As many of you will recall, the cryptocurrency industry's PAC raised more money during the 2024 election cycle than any other industry in the U.S. A common critique is that congressional Democratic support for the cryptocurrency industry's political and regulatory agenda, which is also Trump's agenda, is driven not by a vision of crypto playing a beneficial role in the economy and making the world a better place, but fear of the industry's campaign spending. Cortez Masto and Rosen were asked to respond to that critique. In their statements provided by their offices, the request was ignored. The GENIUS Act still needs to survive another Senate vote. Cortez Masto and Rosen are obviously voting for it. Maybe they think there's no way playing laissez faire footsy with investment erotica could upend the entire financial system and crash the economy yet again, let alone so soon. What are the odds? Maybe they're right. But that still leaves another disturbing matter, a broader concern that isn't crypto-specific. People who didn't vote for Trump (a majority of voters and a supermajority of the population) have been wondering if and when Democrats might start standing up to him in an effective way. Democrats have sworn repeatedly they will do that, but have also lamented that they have been presented precious few opportunities to actually thwart Trump because Republicans control all the things. The GENIUS Act needs to pass the Senate with 60 votes. It's an outstanding chance for Democrats to block a Trump/Republican agenda item that most Senate Democrats think is not in the nation's best interest. But some Senate Democrats are going to vote for it and give Trump the win anyway. That includes both senators from Nevada, who more than any other U.S. senators should know better.
