OVERNIGHT FINANCE: Dems move to force Ex-Im vote

TOMORROW STARTS TONIGHT: DEMS EX-IM AMENDMENT RATTLES HOUSE FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE. In a last minute political play, three top Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee will force their GOP colleagues to vote tomorrow — yes, tomorrow — on whether to consider reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank. You read it here first: Democratic Reps. Maxine Waters (Calif.), Gwen Moore (Wis.) and Denny Heck (Wash.) are co-sponsoring an amendment ahead of the panel’s mark-up of President Obama’s budget request. The amendment calls on the panel to consider the Bank’s reauthorization.

{mosads}– WHY IT MATTERS: You already know: Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and other Tea Partiers say the bank is “cronyism” and “corporate welfare.” A broad coalition of powerful business groups nabbed centrist GOPers and Democrats for their cause, arguing that the bank’s financing sustains millions of U.S. jobs. If Hensarling doesn’t move a reauthorization bill through his panel, the bank could shut down June 30.

— BIG Q FOR GOPers: BUCK HENSARLING OR BIG BUSINESS? A senior aide to a GOP member on the panel tells me that Rs on the committee are divided, with “over half of the GOP members of the [committee] want to overhaul Ex-Im — not get rid of it.” Republican support for the Democrats’ amendment tomorrow would send a clear signal to Hensarling that there’s increasing vocal dissent amongst his troops. Moore’s spokesman Eric Harris tells me: “Understandably, this will put many of our Republican colleagues in a somewhat uncomfortable and precarious situation.” http://bit.ly/1KPNfP8

We’ll be watching…

THIS IS OVERNIGHT FINANCE, and my hometown of Philadelphia has officially gotten the Democratic National Convention for 2016. Tweet: @kevcirilli; email: kcirilli@digital-stage.thehill.com; and subscribe: http://digital-stage.thehill.com/signup/48. Tomorrow is F-R-I-D-A-Y…

ELIZABETH WARREN TO SMALL BANKS: DODD-FRANK MADE YOU RICH. Warren doubled-down on criticisms against community bankers at a Senate Banking hearing this morning: “Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) maintained Thursday that the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law has helped community banks do better than big banks. Warren made the claim at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on community banking regulations, during which she also chided Daniel Blanton, chairman-elect of the American Bankers Association (ABA), who testified.”

— BACKSTORY: Blanton and community banking officials have pushed for exemptions from certain parts of Dodd-Frank, such as mortgage-lending requirements, that they argue should only be applied to big banks. They say that small- and medium-sized banks are being unfairly punished for big banks’ role in the 2008 economic crisis and have found a sympathetic ear among centrist Democrats and Republicans.

Thirsty Thursday… drink up…

— SHOT, via Warren: “We should be very skeptical of regulatory relief bills that are promoted as helping small banks but are pushed by ABA lobbyists for the big banks… If as you claim community banks were particularly hard hit by Dodd-Frank’s new rules, why are they making more money since the rules went into effect and doing better than big banks?”

— CHASER, via Blanton: “There’s not a direct correlation between [the rules] passing and the success of the banks… I don’t think it’s because of the regulations that the banks are doing better. It’s tangling up our process to do mortgages, it’s making it much more difficult.” My story: http://bit.ly/16YPgcK

FED PREZ WON’T BACK DOWN… CONTINUES BLAST AGAINST ‘AUDIT THE FED.’ Reuters: “Passage of a bill that would expose the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policymaking to unprecedented political scrutiny would scare financial markets, a Federal Reserve official said on Thursday. ‘I think it would scare the heck out of people,’ said Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher in an interview with CNBC, when asked how the bill, if it became law, might affect markets. ‘They want to interfere with monetary policy,’ he said of supporters of the bill in Congress.” http://reut.rs/1FEyPON

FOR YOUR RADAR: RIGHT WANTS MCCONNELL TO GUT FILIBUSTER. Cristina Marcos for The Hill: “A growing number of House GOP conservatives are pressuring Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday to invoke the ‘nuclear option’ and change the chamber’s rules to pass a bill defunding President Obama’s executive actions on immigration… [They want] McConnell [to] change Senate rules, so the House-passed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill, which includes language to revoke Obama’s immigration-related actions, can bypass a Democratic filibuster in the upper chamber.” http://bit.ly/1B2YO3v

QUOTABLE, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in a Facebook Q&A on the IRS: “The IRS is too big, too powerful, and we absolutely should scrap the code. Look for my tax plan later this spring.” More from his Q&A here via my story: http://bit.ly/1ysC3PG

NOTABLE, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx telling reporters earlier he’s hopeful on the Highway Trust deal: “There is a window of time and a subset of issues that I think there is common ground on. I think transportation is one of those issues.” Keith Laing for The Hill: http://bit.ly/1ysBrJP

GOP: W.H. PRESSURED BANKS’ DONATIONS TO LIBERALS. My report from this morning’s House Judiciary subcommittee hearing: House Republicans are accusing the Obama administration of pressuring big banks to give money to progressive ‘pet projects’ in settlement agreements over the 2008 financial collapse.

— BACK STORY: Justice Department officials reached multibillion-dollar settlements with JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citibank between November 2013 and August 2014 for the banks’ roles in the lead-up to the financial crisis. As part of the settlement terms, DOJ officials required the banks to donate millions of dollars to housing and activist groups, which Republicans say have gone unfairly to left-leaning groups like the National Council of La Raza.

— REP. TOM MARINO (R-Pa.), subcommittee chairman: “It is a cruel irony that those who have lost the most to the foreclosure crisis seem to be helped the least from DOJ’s settlements… Instead, that cash is going to activist groups, because they work with victims of the housing crisis… I want to know why DOJ did not do more to ensure that states receiving settlement money put victims before pet projects…  [The administration] does believe in trickle-down economics so long as the money is trickling through activist groups.” A Justice Department official vehemently denied the allegations. My report: http://bit.ly/1zPOZnV

PASSED: CHARITABLE EXTENDERS. Marcos: “The House passed legislation on Thursday that would permanently renew three tax credits for charitable giving. Democrats largely support the underlying tax breaks. But the vote fell largely along party lines, 279-137, because many Democrats don’t think the credits should be made permanent without offsets.” Obama has already issued a veto threat. http://bit.ly/1AgDeJd

TECH RALLIES ON FAST-TRACK TRADE, Julian Hattem for The Hill: “Virtually every major tech industry trade group in Washington is rallying to urge Congress to pass ‘fast-track’ trade authority.” http://bit.ly/1A1BoIQ

TONY FRATTO RIPS ‘ANTI-CURRENCY’ BILL. The former President George W. Bush White House official and managing director of Hamilton Place Strategies in a CNBC op-ed: “This week a strange-bedfellows group of Senators rolled out an anti-currency manipulation bill that will serve no other purpose but to upend trade expansion talks currently underway, in particular the Trans-Pacific Partnership. 

“I don’t know what else Sens. Sherrod Brown, Jeff Sessions, Lindsey Graham, Chuck Schumer, and Debbie Stabenow agree on, but I find it a little hilarious that the one thing they do seem to agree on is the ability of the federal government to precisely determine the ‘misalignment’ of the U.S. dollar relative to the currencies of our trading partners.

“And then, after precisely determining the degree of misalignment, government analysts would be expected to re-price imports from foreign countries to account for their estimate.

“Now, the federal government actually does some things well, but price setting isn’t one of them. I wouldn’t trust the federal government to set prices for milk or potato chips, let alone the thousands of products we import from our trading partners. I’m surprised some of these senators don’t share those concerns.” http://cnb.cx/1DJChIO

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: REAUTHORIZE EX-IM. Krista Hughes for Reuters: “In a letter sent to Congressional leaders late on Wednesday, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen and 10 other senior figures said exporters helped spread American values and strengthen its interests overseas and Ex-Im was an important tool to compete and secure business in overseas markets.” http://reut.rs/1J1QZ2u

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