Overnight Finance: Dems roll out ‘Better Deal’ economic agenda | Regulators mull changes to ‘Volcker Rule’ | Gingrich, small biz launch tax cut campaign

Democrats roll out ‘Better Deal,’ new economic agenda: Congressional Democrats are rolling out their economic agenda as they try to reclaim the populist mantel from President Trump ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. 

“President Trump campaigned on a populist platform, talking to working people, that’s why he won. But as he soon as he got into office he abandoned it. … We Democrats are going to fill that vacuum,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said during a press conference in Berryville, Va.

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Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), as well as several House and Senate lawmakers, traveled more than an hour away from the Capitol to pitch their “Better Deal” agenda. 

The message comes after Democrats have spent months trying to regroup from a surprise election loss. The Hill’s Jordain Carney takes us to Berryville: http://bit.ly/2vCynC0.

 

Regulators to mull future of controversial ‘Volcker Rule’: Federal regulators this week will weigh the future of a controversial rule meant to curb excessive risky behavior on Wall Street.

Members of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) will meet Friday afternoon to discuss potential changes to Dodd-Frank financial reform law’s “Volcker Rule,” which bans banks from making “proprietary” trades with their own capital and not on behalf of their customers.

Named after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, the rule is meant to ban banks from engaging in risky trades that could limit their ability to respond to a financial crisis. But banks have long said the rule needs clarity, imposes crushing burdens on smaller firms that lack the influence to trigger a crisis and prevents banks from making safer investments that will boost their ability to lend.

Banks have complained for years about the rule, and secured some delays under former President Barack Obama, but have an opportunity to win major limits under President Trump. I explain here: http://bit.ly/2vD2SI3.

 

Gingrich, small biz to launch major tax cut campaign: U.S. small-business owners are launching a nationwide blitz with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) to pressure Congress to pivot to tax relief after a frustrating summer of healthcare gridlock.

The group is armed with a survey showing that small-business owners want tax relief more urgently than a repeal of ObamaCare, so that they can reinvest in their companies or pay down debt.

A lobbying coalition led by the bipartisan small business group Job Creators Network (JCN) and more conservative groups like FreedomWorks and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is planning to barnstorm the country in August to pitch lawmakers at summer town halls and to create a media echo chamber in key congressional districts.

Their goal is to force a pivot from healthcare legislation and to narrow ambitions from the complete tax code overhaul that has been favored by Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.): http://bit.ly/2vD3hdG.

 

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 

• House Financial Services Committee: Full markup on bills covering municipal finance, capital access, Financial Stability Oversight Council continuity, terrorism financing, and directing the Treasury Secretary to hand over to Congress documents related to Trump’s financial connections to Russia 10 a.m. http://bit.ly/2uJjxf1.
• Senate Banking Committee: Vote on six nominations for Treasury, Commerce and Housing and Urban Development departments, 10 a.m. http://bit.ly/2uIUVTO.
• House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight: Hearing on the Internal Revenue Service’s record retention policies, 10 a.m. http://bit.ly/2vJhiG2.
• Senate Appropriations Subcommittee markup of the fiscal 2018 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, & Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 11 a.m. http://bit.ly/2vJfFrO.
• House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe and Eurasia: Hearing on the president’s fiscal 2018 budget proposal for Europe and Eurasia, 2 p.m. http://bit.ly/2tn6MUa.
• Senate Appropriations Subcommittee markup of the fiscal 2018 Commerce, Justice, Science & Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2:30 p.m.  http://bit.ly/2vJ6AiA.
• House to vote on repealing the Consumer Finance Protection Board’s arbitration rule.

 

Your look at the week ahead:

• Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin testifies Thursday before the House Financial Services Committee. Mnuchin is slated to deliver a semi-annual report on the international financial system, but he can also expect some tough questions from Democrats on President Trump’s potential financial connections to Russia. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the committee’s ranking Democrat, has called for Trump’s impeachment, and fellow Financial Services Committee Reps. Al Green (D-Texas) and Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) have already filed articles of impeachment.

• The Senate Banking Committee will hold hearings for two major regulatory nominees: Joseph Otting to be comptroller of the currency and Randal Quarles to be a member of the Federal Reserve Board and the Fed’s vice chairman for supervision. Both Otting and Quarles will play significant roles in Trump’s pledge to “dismantle” the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act.

• Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton speaks at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday morning. Clayton is likely to tout the SEC’s efforts to reduce costs for companies who wish to go public. He is also likely to discuss the commission’s plan to reduce or streamline Obama-era regulations.

 

Senate spending plan boosts House moderates: The Senate is giving fresh ammunition to centrist House Republicans arguing for a bipartisan, bicameral approach to the budget.

The Senate Appropriations Committee revealed spending levels for the 2018 funding bills that are in line with current spending levels — a departure from a House budget that would impose steep cuts to mandatory spending programs such as food stamps and a big increase in defense spending.

The Senate’s plans are in line with arguments from House centrists who say their party should be working on a budget based in the reality that spending bills will need Democratic votes to get through the Senate.

“We are writing the appropriations bill with numbers that are not real,” Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), co-chairman of the moderate GOP Tuesday Group, said this week in complaining about the House’s approach.

“Everyone knows that there will be a bipartisan, bicameral budget agreement at some point,” he added: http://bit.ly/2vCi5sR.

 

Business groups urge Trump’s Ex-Im Bank nominee to withdraw: New Jersey manufacturers on Monday joined a growing business campaign urging President Trump’s nominee to withdraw from consideration to head the Export-Import Bank.

The New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA) is the latest group to express in their opposition to the nomination of Scott Garrett, a former Republican lawmaker from New Jersey who tried to shut down Ex-Im while he was in office.

“We call on Scott Garrett to withdraw his nomination as president and chairman of the Ex-Im Bank,” said NJBIA President and CEO Michele Siekerka.

“The Ex-Im Bank supports 243 New Jersey businesses that support 28,834 jobs in our state, so it is important that its leader be someone who believes in its mission to help level the playing field against foreign competitors,” Siekerka said.

The push by national and state business groups began earlier this month when Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), wrote a scathing op-ed in The Wall Street Journal against Garrett’s bid to head Ex-Im. The Hill’s Vicki Needham explains: http://bit.ly/2vCX4yu.

 

Meadows: CBO should downsize, aggregate think tank reports: House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) is trying to eliminate 89 positions from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s staff and require the office to aggregate think tank data instead of using its own professional expertise.

“They ought to be aggregators; there are plenty of think tanks that are out there,” Meadows said at a National Press Club event. 

In an amendment to be offered to the security-related spending bill scheduled for a House vote this week, Meadows would cut $15 million of funding to CBO staff members responsible for estimating the budgetary costs of bills in Congress, and have them “carry out such duties solely by facilitating and assimilating scoring data compiled by the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution, and the Urban Institute.”

The proposal follows after a series of CBO reports predicted that tens of millions of people would become uninsured under various Republican plans to repeal and replace ObamaCare. The Hill’s Niv Elis takes us there: http://bit.ly/2vCyKg2.

 

Conservative groups urge senators to vote yes on key healthcare motion: Conservative groups are pressing Senators to vote yes on a key procedural vote in Republicans’ efforts to repeal ObamaCare.

“Failure is not an option,” Heritage Action CEO Michael Needham said in a statement Monday. “For seven years, Republicans promised the American people that they would do everything in their power to dismantle ObamaCare. Every single Republican should vote yes tomorrow.”

The Senate on Tuesday is expected to hold a vote on a motion to proceed to the House-passed legislation to repeal and replace ObamaCare. A successful vote would start debate.

The House bill is being used as a vehicle for whatever ObamaCare-related legislation the Senate considers. But it’s not clear yet if the Senate will vote on a repeal-only bill or a measure that repeals and immediately replaces the 2010 health law. Senate GOP leadership has little room for error on the vote, since the motion needs the support of almost every Republican senator to be successful: http://bit.ly/2vCpPvf.

 

Conservative rep downplays shutdown over border wall: House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) on Monday said that funding for President Trump’s controversial border wall is unlikely to cause a government shutdown.

“The odds of a government shutdown are very minimal when it comes to that,” the conservative lawmaker said at an event in Washington, D.C.

“I do think the funding of the border wall will happen,” he added.

Appropriators have set aside $1.6 billion to fund new wall and fencing sections on parts of the U.S.-Mexico border covering a few dozen miles.

Those funds are set to be included in a “minibus” measure combining four security-related appropriations bills that’s scheduled for a vote in the House this week: http://bit.ly/2vCghjz.

 

Low housing supply weighs on June sales of existing homes: Low housing supply dampened sales of previously owned homes in June even as homes are selling at a near record pace.

Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family homes and townhomes, slipped 1.8 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.52 million from 5.62 million in May, the National Association of Realtors reported on Monday.

Despite last month’s decline, June’s sales pace is 0.7 percent ahead of a year ago, but is the second lowest of 2017, behind February’s 5.47 million.

Only the Midwest saw a sales increase last month.

The lack of housing inventory is the main problem contributing to the market’s sluggish results: http://bit.ly/2vCz3ri.

 

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