THE SCENE — House Financial Services Committee ranking member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) thanking reporters today for attending a press conference she convened with top House Democratic members, including Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.). They were urging Congress to pass a long-term reauthorization of its terror insurance program (TRIA).
{mosads}”Thank you for coming, now I have to go check in with Sen. [Charles] Schumer [D-N.Y.] on TRIA negotiations,” Waters said, alluding to Schumer’s on-going talks with House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas).
“Did you check his pulse?” Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) asked her as they left the room.
TOMORROW STARTS TONIGHT: DEMS BACKING HOUSE FUNDING PLAN? Scott Wong and Mike Lillis for the hometown paper: “Speaker John Boehner said Thursday he expects some House Democrats will join Republicans in passing a trillion-dollar spending package next week to avert a government shutdown. But the Ohio Republican stopped short of saying majority Republicans needed Democratic support to get the measure through the lower chamber and over to the Senate.”
— WHY IT MATTERS: “Tea Party conservatives in Boehner’s conference are balking at the funding plan, saying it doesn’t do enough to push back on President Obama’s executive action on immigration… The federal government will shut down on Dec. 11 unless Congress acts first to prevent it. House Democratic leaders on Thursday declined once more to play their cards in the year-end government funding debate.”
— PRIMER ON THE DETAILS: “The Republicans’ strategy would fund most of the government through September but attach a much shorter leash to the Homeland Security Department (DHS), which will implement President Obama’s new executive action halting deportation for millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.”
— HOUSE DEMOCRATIC WHIP STENY HOYER (D-Md.) to reporters: “We don’t think that’s the best policy. Sen. [Lindsey] Graham — as you know, a Republican senator — said the bill wasn’t a good idea. And I agree with that. We’ll see what they’re going to offer.” Story: http://bit.ly/1FV2t2R.
THIS IS OVERNIGHT FINANCE. Happy almost Friday. Tweet: @kevcirilli; email: kcirilli@digital-stage.thehill.com; and subscribe: http://digital-stage.thehill.com/signup/48.
Back to the budget…
TEA PARTY OPPOSES CROMNIBUS. Pete Schroeder reports: “Heritage Action on Thursday urged House Republicans to vote against their leadership’s plan to fund the government. The conservative group said Republicans should oppose the measure to keep the government open unless it includes language directly blocking President Obama’s recent executive action on immigration.” Pete’s story: http://bit.ly/1w3UiQx.
— WHY IT MATTERS: If groups like Heritage oppose the budget, that puts more pressure on GOP leadership to get Democrats on board to help avert a government shutdown. Heritage is banking leaders won’t be able to get enough Dems and will have to revisit their strategy. Risky? Maybe. Especially when they’re just a few weeks away from a GOP-controlled Congress.
Thirsty Thursday? Let’s drink…
SHOT, Warren Buffet bets big on Hillary Clinton for 2016. Lisa Lerer for Bloomberg: “[Buffett] gave the maximum donation allowed to Ready for Hillary last quarter, his first-ever check to the sort of independent political groups that he’s scorned in the past. Buffett, who is the third richest man in the world, gave $25,000, the most any individual can donate under the committee’s self-imposed cap, according to a person familiar with Ready for Hillary’s post-election financial disclosure report.” http://bloom.bg/1tU4XpI.
CHASER, Sen. Elizabeth Warren rallies with the AFL-CIO. Schroeder: “Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will be taking her populist economic message to the AFL-CIO in January, when she will be the labor union’s keynote speaker at an event devoted to wages.” http://bit.ly/1rUPcoa.
TERROR INSURANCE WATCH: HENSARLING SCORES A DEAL? A deal could come tomorrow. My latest: “Lawmakers are close to reaching a deal on reauthorizing Congress’s terrorism insurance program, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions… The program was initiated after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and is set to expire at the end of the year.”
— DEAL DETAILS: The deal would reauthorize the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) for six years and double to $200 million the damage threshold at which government-backed insurance would be offered. The threshold now stands at $100 million, and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and other critics have pressed for it to be increased to $500 million. It could be part of the so-called “cromnibus” bill and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said it could see a vote next week.
— TRIA CRACKS DODD-FRANK? The TRIA package could also correct a mistake in a portion of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Law. The portion of the law — known as the Collins Amendment — requires insurers to follow the same regulatory requirements as banks. Lawmakers, as well as the bill’s authors in both parties have said that including insurance companies under the same requirements was an error. Story: http://bit.ly/1ykGFfT.
So TRIA could go down as the first crack in Dodd-Frank’s armor…
TEA PARTY HITS BACK AT FINCHER ON EX-IM. Yesterday, I told you about how Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.) is trying to rally support on a five-year reauthorization for the Export-Import Bank. (You already know: Tea Partyers like Hensarling hate the bank and say it’s corporate welfare. Ex-Im supporters say it helps create jobs.) Today, the fallout from the right:
— HERITAGE ACTION spokesman Dan Holler tells OVERNIGHT: “The Export-Import Bank cannot be fixed, period. If Republicans want to create contrast with the president and appeal to hardworking Americans, they cannot spend 2015 carrying K Street’s water.”
— NATIONAL REVIEW’s Veronique de Rugy: “The Ex-Im fight is an important test of the GOP’s commitment to free markets and small government over interest groups. It looks to me that Mr. Fincher won’t pass it — what about the rest of them?” Her full column: http://bit.ly/1ySm9Bh. My story from yesterday: http://bit.ly/1yhFCZk.
HOUSE REBUKES OBAMA ON IMMIGRATION, via Cristina Marcos: “The House on Thursday voted to bar the executive branch from deferring the deportation of undocumented workers, taking its first direct action against President Obama’s executive actions on immigration. The 219-197 vote was largely symbolic as the measure is headed for certain death in the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said he won’t take up the legislation.” http://bit.ly/1yjRF8f.
SIDESHOW: W. DIGS HOVA. Judy Kurtz for The Hill: “Former President George W. Bush is apparently fond of the New York-born rapper, according to his daughter. Jenna Bush Hager appeared on Bravo… ‘He’s not a big Kanye fan,’ Bush Hager said. ‘If you remember, there was a little tension,’ she added.”http://bit.ly/1tTA8RP.
ROSTER ROLL-OUT: RYAN UNVEILS HIS LINE-UP. The House Ways and Means Committee will be shifting around its subcommittee chairmanships next year under incoming chairman, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Bernie Becker reports. He’s got the full list of changes here: http://bit.ly/1vRFFN4.
PwC SNAGS FORMER IRS OFFICIAL. Becker: “The tax and accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers has landed a former top IRS official for its Washington office. Mike Danilack is becoming a principal on top international issues, after serving as the IRS deputy commissioner in charge of some of those same matters.” http://bit.ly/1s0yDS9.
CYBER-WATCH, via Cory Bennett for The Hill: “At least one cybersecurity bill suddenly has life in the lame-duck Congress. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) is expecting the Senate to release as early as Thursday his bill to enable private companies to share cybersecurity information with the Homeland Security Department (DHS). The measure, which passed the House in July, could reach the floor for final passage next week, McCaul said following a Chamber of Commerce event.”
— DEAL DETAILS: “The bill, the National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, would codify the DHS’s cybersecurity role and officially authorize the agency’s existing cybersecurity center. Government agencies would be required to notify the center of any data breaches and private entities would be given legal protections to exchange cyber threat information with it.” Story: http://bit.ly/1FVcflz.
— U.S. HACKED MORE THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY. A new study from MicroTrend: “The United States had the most point-of-sale malware infections worldwide in the third quarter at 30 percent, which is likely due to its reliance on magnetic stripe cards, according to Trend Micro’s third-quarter attack report.” Full report: http://bit.ly/1tAOVS9.
— WHAT’S NEXT: Earlier today, the Financial Services Roundtable (FSR) — a trade group that’s proven to be one of the top players in cybersecurity — announced the next steps they’ll be taking with the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA). It’s a tricky partnership between the banking and retail sectors that often clash heads on regulatory issues. But FSR CEO Tim Pawlenty and RILA president Sandra L. Kennedy said in a joint letter to lawmakers today that they’ll be pushing for legislation in the next Congress that would create a national standard for data breach notification and to update criminal codes to include cyber crime. Letter: http://bit.ly/12IetXq
It’s not all love between banks and retailers…
BANKS SUE TARGET: “Target will face a lawsuit from major banks over its data breach that compromised at least 40 million customers’ credit card information. A judge in St. Paul, Minn., refused Target’s request to dismiss the banks’ claim that they had suffered tens of millions of dollars in damages resulting from having to reimburse fraudulent charges and reissue credit and debit cards. The case could help answer the murky question of who is liable following a major data breach.” http://bit.ly/1I1HVaN.
PUTIN 3.0 – ECONOMICS TO DERAIL DOMESTIC LEGACY? Carroll Colley, managing director of Highgate Consulting, shares her views at The Hill: “Rapidly declining oil prices and the corresponding downward spiral of the Russian ruble are currently dominating business headlines. Russian government leaders and economists now project that Russia will likely enter into recessionary territory in 2015.
“Amidst this backdrop, it is worth remembering that during his first two terms as Russian president, Vladimir Putin secured a legacy as the overseer of the Russian ‘economic miracle.’ Now facing tremendous economic headwinds, complicated by Western sanctions, how will Russia’s current economic crisis affect Putin’s sky-high approval ratings, his status as the steward of the Russian economy and his policy objectives?…
“Maneuvering Russia out of the current crisis and creating new economic drivers is critical to the Russian state, as well as to Putin’s legacy. The current environment suggests that in sharp contrast to his first two terms, Putin’s third presidential term may well be remembered for economic decline.” http://bit.ly/1vPVq8p.
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