American Incomes Hit A Record High

Alex Ossola (0:03)

Trump administration officials defend the president's policies to Congress. Plus, in a blow to the crypto industry, a landmark bill falls short during a procedural vote in the Senate.

Vicky Ge Huang (0:14)

One of the biggest hurdles for the bill over the past few months has been the ethics language.

Alex Ossola (0:20)

And new census data show that American incomes reached a record last year. It's Tuesday, September 15th. I'm Alex Ossola for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

Congress is back in session with the Senate returning yesterday from its summer recess. And two members of the Trump administration appeared before lawmakers today. FBI Director Cash Patel sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee for an oversight hearing today. Lawmakers grilled him on changes to the FBI hiring rules and the agency's role at poll sites for the midterms.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke to members of the House Financial Services Committee. Lawmakers grilled him on whether his recent intervention in the Treasury bond market worked. Bessent said that his intervention was successful because even though yields remain high, they might have climbed even higher without the Treasury Department's ramped up buyback plan.

SPEAKER_3 (1:20)

The US bond market continues during the past month since President Trump has come in. It has been the best-performing bond market in the developed world.

Alex Ossola (1:29)

Bessent was also asked about President Trump's plan to pay each adult citizen $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate. He called Trump's plan, quote, very real. And this week's chatter on AI's existential threat also bled into questioning. Bessent said the Treasury Department has been focused on AI safety since the limited release of Anthropix mythos models and that he hadn't yet seen any AI regulation he would support following the recent hugging face hack.

The Pentagon spent about $38 billion in its first few months of the war with Iran, and it will need at least five years to replace the missile interceptors used in the conflict. That's according to the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan congressional watchdog. It also estimated that the war is likely to cost an additional $2 to $3 billion a month, as President Trump tries to figure out the next steps in the conflict. The Pentagon's chief spokesman said claims of US munition shortages are false.

And the board for the Kennedy Center voted today to immediately close the venue's main building for renovations. That's according to people familiar with the matter. And per court filings, the work is expected to take two years and cost $285 million. The board said that the building is in such disrepair that it's endangering visitors and employees, and that the consulting group hired for the renovation had recommended the closure. Trump said in a social media post afterwards, the venue will close immediately, but that the renovation can't begin until an appeals court rules on the board's approved name for the center. He signaled plans to go to the Supreme Court if he loses. The move comes just a few hours after a federal judge blocked President Trump's name from going back on the Kennedy Center building, saying that it violated an earlier ruling that only Congress has the authority to rename the institution.

In more news out of Washington, a landmark cryptocurrency bill has failed to advance in Congress. The Clarity Act already passed the House last year, but it fell short in a procedural vote in the Senate today that required the approval of 60 senators. The bill was expected to establish the first comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets. It had been under negotiation for more than a year, but a major sticking point ended up being the ethics rules and whether the bill should restrict President Trump from profiting off the industry. He made more than $1.4 billion from his crypto ventures last year. Journal reporter Vicky Ge Huang, who covers the crypto industry, says today's failed vote doesn't mean the bill is dead.

Vicky Ge Huang (3:55)

Senators could refile for this bill to be brought back in a couple of days. However, all the crypto industry, lobbyists and people in DC that I've talked to, the odds of this bill being resurrected in 2026 are very low. However, at least for the short term, a lot of industry insiders say that the crypto sector is positioned for stability because the SEC has proposed some rules for how startups can raise monies or tokens. The CFTC chairman, Mike Selig, has also said that the agency has directed staff to draft rules for crypto market structure, but the industry definitely prefers permanent rules, which would have been able to be codified by the Clarity Act.