Upper House

ATLANTA—Georgia voters have suffered through an extra dose of political ads because of Tuesday’s U.S. Senate runoff, and their pain has meant extra profit for WSB-TV, the station that has seen more money pass through it in 2022 than any other in the nation. More than $86 million in political advertising flowed into the ABC affiliate so far this year, according to data from the ad tracker AdImpact. It is a windfall generated by a confluence of high-profile races for governor and U.S. Senate, including the bonus of the…

WASHINGTON—Lawmakers should pass legislation that would impose strict rules on cryptocurrency exchanges, including rules to limit or prohibit the conflicts of interest that contributed to FTX’s collapse, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Rostin Behnam said Thursday. Speaking to members of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Mr. Behnam said he still supported a bill that would give his small agency authority to police trading in bitcoin, ether and other digital assets classified as…

WASHINGTON—The Senate voted to intervene to prevent a nationwide strike by railroad workers while rejecting a proposal to give them expanded paid sick leave, with lawmakers saying they reluctantly heeded President Biden’s call to resolve the long-running labor dispute.In a 80-15 vote, with one senator voting present, lawmakers agreed to force unions to adopt an earlier labor agreement mediated by the administration. The measure now goes to the White House, and Mr. Biden said he would sign it as soon as it got to his desk.…

Chief executives of the two largest U.S. supermarket chains are set to testify Tuesday at a Senate subcommittee hearing, where they are expected to defend their companies’ proposed $20 billion merger and address questions about how it could affect American grocers and consumers.  Kroger Co. KR -0.43% CEO Rodney McMullen and Albertsons ACI 0.44% Cos. CEO Vivek Sankaran…

A pitched battle over data is under way in the $4 trillion market that finances roads and sewers. At issue is a little noticed measure in proposed federal legislation that would mandate how state and local governments across the country present their financial results to investors.The municipal-bond market in some ways remains stuck in the last century. Municipalities file reports erratically according to different standards, and the files aren’t machine-readable by investors attempting to study city or state finances…

WASHINGTON—Lawmakers, agriculture groups and farmworker organizations are pushing to pass an overhaul of the farmworker visa program through both chambers of Congress before the GOP takes control of the House next year.A bill providing a path to citizenship for about one million farmworkers—and creating a capped number of new year-round visas—passed the House in March 2021, with the support of 217 Democrats and 30 Republicans. The measure is generally supported by immigrant advocacy groups and by farmers who say they…

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and members of his team rose from relative obscurity in Washington to be among the biggest donors in U.S. politics, contributing more than $70 million to election campaigns in less than 18 months.Mr. Bankman-Fried personally gave $40 million to politicians and political-action committees ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, mostly to Democrats and liberal-leaning groups, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign…

Martin Gruenberg, acting chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., in Washington in June. Photo: Ting Shen/Bloomberg News…

WASHINGTON—Americans paid a greater share of the taxes they owe in recent years, according to new estimates from the Internal Revenue Service. In tax years 2014 through 2016, Americans paid 85% of their taxes on time, up from the agency’s 83.7% estimate for tax years 2011 through 2013, the IRS said Friday. That compliance rate climbed to 87% after IRS enforcement and late payments were included, from 85.9% in the prior estimate. The IRS projects that those higher percentages were consistent for tax years 2017 through…

The delay in choosing and confirming Mr. Rettig’s replacement nearly certainly means an interim IRS commissioner after Nov. 12. That acting commissioner might be reluctant to make binding decisions that affect the agency’s long-term future. Any vacancy lasting until January would let Republicans influence or reject a Biden nominee should they win a Senate majority in November’s election. The Biden administration didn’t place enough priority on finding an IRS commissioner over the past two years, and the…