Business & Economy

Overnight Finance: Poll finds declining faith in Trump on economy | House panel to mark up budget | Freedom Caucus not on board | Trade officials outline NAFTA priorities

by Sylvan Lane

Poll finds declining faith in Trump on economy: Americans are losing faith in President Trump’s ability to deliver on key economic campaign promises but still expect major action on immigration, according to a poll released by Bloomberg on Monday.

The Bloomberg poll showed that decreasing numbers of the American public believe Trump will negotiate beneficial trade deals for domestic workers, build a wall along the southern border and put the United States’ economic interest above his own.

Only 40 percent of respondents told Bloomberg they were either very or mostly confident that Trump would do what’s best for the U.S. economy over his own business empire through deals with foreign leaders. That’s a more than 10 percent drop from December, when 51 percent of respondents said they trusted Trump to put the country over his own riches. I break it down here: http://bit.ly/2tz4m40.

 

House panel to mark up budget Wednesday after weeks of delay: The House Budget Committee, led by Chairwoman Diane Black (R-Tenn.), will mark up a 2018 budget resolution on Wednesday after weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations, delays and postponements.

{mosads}

The budget spends billions of dollars more on both defense and nondefense discretionary spending than President Trump proposed in his budget and cuts roughly $200 billion in mandatory spending in programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps: http://bit.ly/2tyHVvG.

 

But hold on… Freedom Caucus won’t support budget resolution: The conservative House Freedom Caucus is unwilling to vote for the House budget resolution scheduled to be considered in committee on Wednesday, a source told The Hill on Monday.

“They don’t want to vote for a vehicle to a tax package they’ve not seen,” the GOP source with knowledge of the conservative bloc’s thinking said.   

“Additionally, they have issues with the budget levels and would support something closer in line to the president’s budget,” the source added.

The source added that the Freedom Caucus has yet to issue a formal position for or against the budget, but noted that spending and tax reform details are the primary concerns. An official position could be released later in the week. The Hill’s Niv Elis explains: http://bit.ly/2tyS3oj.

 

Trade officials outline NAFTA priorities: The United States on Monday said reducing trade deficits is a top priority for revamping the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico.

The Trump administration sent Congress its required NAFTA objectives, saying the aim is to improve market access for U.S. manufacturing, agriculture and services in the three-nation deal.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said an updated agreement will include a digital economy chapter and will fold labor and environment obligations, which have remained outside the main agreement, into a final deal.

Lighthizer said the U.S. will work to eliminate “unfair subsidies, market-distorting practices by state-owned enterprises” and will improve intellectual property protections.

Talks are expected to start in about a month.

The Hill’s Vicki Needham has more: http://bit.ly/2tkBBwz

 

Happy Monday and welcome to Overnight Finance. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.

See something I missed? Let me know at slane@digital-stage.thehill.com or tweet me @SylvanLane. And if you like your newsletter, you can subscribe to it here: http://bit.ly/1NxxW2N.

 

On tap tomorrow

 

Regulator trying to halt arbitration rule: From Reuters: “A feud over a proposal to bar financial firms from requiring customers to arbitrate disputes escalated on Monday when a banking regulator appointed by President Donald Trump called on an appointee of his predecessor to halt the rulewriting project.

“In a letter sent on Monday, acting U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Keith Noreika requested the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau halt a new regulation that would bar financial firms including the mandatory arbitration clause in contract.

“Noreika, a Trump appointee, argued that his agency had not had the chance to ensure the rule would not pose a threat to the safety and soundness of banks, and complained the CFPB has not provided the data it used to build its rule.” Click here for the story from Reuters: http://reut.rs/2tyXhAj.

 

15K more visas for seasonal workers: The Department of Homeland Security announced Monday it would expand by 15,000 the number of temporary visas granted this year for workers in seasonal non-agricultural industries like tourism.

In a statement, DHS said Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly had consulted with Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta and determined there were not enough “qualified and willing U.S. workers” to fill the needs of businesses.

The number of H-2B visas had been capped for this year at 66,000.

Businesses have been vocal in demanding an expansion of the H-2B program, saying there are not enough American workers to fill the temporary jobs they need to operate.

In February, Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s Florida resort, announced it would hire 64 workers under the program.

The Hill’s Rafael Bernal has more here: http://bit.ly/2vvMdWg

 

GOP chairman gets hundreds of thousands of comments on tax reform:  Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) received hundreds of thousands of comments on tax reform from taxpayers and groups after he called for feedback from stakeholders, a committee spokesperson said Monday.

“The Senate Finance Committee received hundreds of thousands of submissions from a broad cross section of citizens and stakeholders offering a variety of ideas and proposals on how to reform the nation’s broken tax code,” the spokesperson said. “Each submission will be considered as the committee moves forward with its current tax reform efforts.”

Hatch and other Republicans are hoping to pass tax-reform legislation this year. The Utah Republican is one of six lawmakers and administration officials who meet regularly to work on a tax framework that the White House, House and Senate can all support. He has also tasked GOP members of the Finance Committee to provide input on specific areas of the tax code. Here’s more from The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda: http://bit.ly/2tyJGcw.

 

Charities push GOP for tax reform change: The nonprofit sector is pressuring lawmakers and the White House to protect the charitable tax deduction.

The tax-reform plans released by the Trump administration and House Republicans would keep the deduction for charitable donations, but also increase the size of the standard deduction, likely reducing the number of people who would use the tax preference.

Groups in the nonprofit community say that policy change would have disastrous consequences, cutting into charitable donations nationwide.

They are pushing for tax reform to allow all taxpayers to use the charitable tax deduction, even if they don’t itemize on their filing — a so-called universal charitable deduction. Naomi Jagoda explains: http://bit.ly/2tyExku.

 

Koch-backed group: Congress shouldn’t propose new foreign tax: An advocacy group backed by wealthy GOP donors Charles and David Koch is pushing back against the idea of a minimum tax on U.S. companies’ foreign earnings.

Lawmakers are looking at a foreign minimum tax as they work on rewriting the tax code and discuss how to prevent U.S. companies from shifting profits overseas. But Americans for Prosperity (AFP) views the idea as counterproductive.

“Policymakers in Washington should be focused on making the American economy more competitive, rather than looking for new revenue streams from American businesses and their customers,” AFP chief government affairs officer Brent Gardner said in a statement Monday. “Just like every other misguided tax hike, extracting more revenue from American companies comes out of the pockets of customers and consumers.” Naomi Jagoda has more on the proporsal, and the opposition here: http://bit.ly/2tyHZeM.

 

Ethics watchdog to release Mar-a-Lago visitor logs: Government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) will be making public the visitor logs to President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort starting this fall.

CREW on Monday announced that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will turn over visitor logs to Trump’s property by Sept. 8 as part of ongoing litigation with the group, which in turn will make them public.

CREW, the National Security Archive and the Knight First Amendment Institute sued for logs to Trump Tower, the White House and Mar-a-Lago to be released. Their lawsuit on White House logs is pending, and DHS claims to have no records for visitors to Trump Tower, according to a statement from CREW.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/2uwS6F5

 

AT&T, Time Warner hit bumps on way to merger: The government’s review of the AT&T-Time Warner merger is not going as smoothly as the companies hoped.

The $85 billion deal is widely expected to be approved by the Justice Department, but it is running into a number of political road bumps unusual even for controversial mega-mergers.

The deal would see AT&T, one of the nation’s telecom giants, buy entertainment powerhouse Time Warner.

AT&T’s headaches include President Trump’s public disdain for Time Warner’s CNN and his opposition to the merger on the campaign trail. Trump’s antitrust chief, who is key to approving the deal, is also stuck in a long backlog of nominees awaiting Senate confirmation. And Democrats are probing for any sign of political interference following a New York Times report that said the White House is threatening to use the deal as leverage over CNN. The Hill’s Harper Neidig reports: http://bit.ly/2tyXyDD.

 

Google wins court battle with Labor Department over wage data: A judge ruled that Google does not have to hand over some data the Labor Department requested as part of an investigation into whether the internet search giant had engaged in gender pay discrimination.

The Labor Department had sued Google for extensive job and salary history and other data after it said it found “systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce.”

Judge Steve Berlin said in a decision on Friday that the agency’s request was too broad and raised privacy concerns. He did, however, order Google to partially comply by providing a much narrower set of data.

Janet Herold, a Labor Department attorney, said that despite Berlin’s rejection of some of the agency’s requests, she sees the decision as vindicating the government’s case: http://bit.ly/2tz7BII.

 

Write us with tips, suggestions and news: slane@digital-stage.thehill.com, vneedham@digital-stage.thehill.com, njagoda@digital-stage.thehill.com and nelis@digital-stage.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @SylvanLane,  @VickofTheHill, @NJagoda and @NivElis

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