Presented by CTIA.

Wireless and AI are combining to drive the future of innovation,

bringing AI from the cloud into the real world.

Physical AI will work alongside us in factories, hospitals, and on the front lines of public safety.

Meeting its connectivity demands requires new mid-band spectrum and policies that accelerate infrastructure deployment.

The country that leads this convergence leads the future.

Learn more at cTIA.org.

Good morning. I'm Max Cohen, congressional reporter here at Punchable News, and I'm filling in for Anna and Jake today.

Welcome to The Daily Punch, brought to you by Punch Bowl News. It's Friday, May 15th, 2026. Let's get into the mix.

Here are your top Washington headlines of the day. Number one,

crypto success and what it means for American politics. Number two, the latest on reconciliation

talks. And number three, the highway bill. Let's get into the mix with the number one Washington

story of the day. And that is Brendan Peterson's great dispatch on the cryptocurrency industry

and a major legislative triumph that happened yesterday in the Senate. The Senate Banking

Committee on Thursday secured a monumental milestone from cryptocurrency, a bipartisan markup

of a bill that would give the industry an enduring foothold in the regulated U.S. financial system.

After months of uncertainty, this legislation's chances have never looked better, although some

challenges still remain will note. Proponents of the bill say the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act

will protect American consumers from fraud and allow financial innovation to thrive.

And they could be right, but Brandon writes, we have to be completely clear-eyed about what brought Congress to this pivotal

moment, campaign cash, pure and simple, and a whole lot of it. Most congressional staffers and

lawmakers still cannot really explain what crypto is or what it's good for, not without a hand-waving appeal

...