Overnight Finance: GOP eyes vote to fund government through March 23 | How much credit should Trump get for economy? | Dems vow to repeal parts of GOP tax law | Mulvaney shakes up office policing racism in lending

GOP eyes vote to fund government through March 23: House lawmakers will likely consider legislation early next week to keep the government open through around March 23, according to two sources familiar with the situation, though the plan has not been finalized.

The thinking is that a six-week funding patch would give lawmakers enough time to reach a deal on immigration, which would then unlock the budget caps deal that is needed to write a massive omnibus spending bill for the rest of the fiscal year.

Congress may end up voting on the spending measure as early as Tuesday because of a House Democratic retreat planned for next Wednesday.

{mosads}

“What I’ve heard is later March, sometime around the 23rd, so enough time to hopefully come to a deal to actually get an omnibus,” said one GOP lawmaker. “I think they want to give themselves some breathing room, but no final decisions have been made.”

But Republican leaders have still not finalized a broader strategy to avoid another government shutdown when current funding expires on Feb. 8, though lawmakers dismissed concerns that the government would close down again. The Hill’s Melanie Zanona has the details: http://bit.ly/2DWfKwP

 

Trump compares Pelosi’s ‘crumbs’ comments to Clinton’s ‘deplorables’ remark: President Trump on Thursday compared House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) “crumbs” comments about the tax law to Hillary Clinton’s controversial “deplorables” comment made during the 2016 presidential campaign.

“We got hit with these corporations giving tremendous bonuses to everybody that Nancy Pelosi called crumbs,” the president said in West Virginia at the congressional Republicans’ retreat. “That could be like deplorable, does that make sense? Deplorable and crumbs? Those two words, they seem to have a resemblance. I hope it has the same meaning.”

The president later added that bonuses of a few thousand dollars “are not crumbs, it’s a lot of money.”

Pelosi’s office quickly fired back.

“What’s deplorable is Republicans’ desperate effort to hide the multibillion-dollar corporate windfalls of the GOP tax scam behind a handful of meager, one-time bonuses,” said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Pelosi: http://bit.ly/2DVtegg.

 

Dems vow to repeal parts of GOP tax law: Democrats are vowing to undo parts of the GOP’s tax-code overhaul if they win back control of the House in November, hoping President Trump’s first major domestic achievement will be a liability for the Republicans in the midterm elections.

The effort is reminiscent of the Republicans’ long-drawn campaign to hammer away at the Affordable Care Act and turn President Obama’s signature health-care expansion into a down-ballot albatross for the Democrats — an effort that helped the Republicans retake the House with sweeping election victories in 2010.

“We should repeal it and I think we should offer an alternative tax plan, which is we’re going to provide the tax relief to the middle class and the working class,” said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).

Democratic leaders are encouraging their troops to stage district-based tax-reform “teach-ins” designed to convince voters “what this tax scam means to families,” in the words of the direct appeal from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). The Hill’s Mike Lillis and Naomi Jagoda report: http://bit.ly/2DTNgrp.

 

How much credit should Trump get for the economy? President Trump and the Republican Congress are putting economic stewardship at the center of their midterm messaging, hoping to reap the election rewards from the steady growth in jobs, strong consumer confidence and a bullish stock market.

Trump is taking full responsibility for boosting the economy he inherited from former President Obama, boasting that his policies, including the tax-cut bill signed in December, are driving a faster expansion.

The Dow Jones industrial average has gained 8,000 points since Trump became president and the unemployment rate is 4.1 percent — a 17-year low.

Hundreds of firms have announced plans to expand their businesses and provide bonuses to their employees since the passage of the bill, which cut the corporate rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. But not everything is rosy. The Hill’s Vicki Needham and I explain: http://bit.ly/2DW1fx9.

 

Mulvaney shakes up office policing racism in lending: The acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau stripped the CFPB’s office devoted to lending discrimination of enforcement power in an effort to streamline the agency, according to an email released Thursday.

Acting CFPB chief Mick Mulvaney told bureau staff in a Tuesday email that he would transfer the agency’s Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity to a department under his purview.

Mulvaney said the fair lending office will focus on consumer education and advocacy under control of the office of the director. The bureau’s supervision, enforcement and fair lending division, a separate unit outside of the director’s office, will take over policing the lending market for racial discrimination.

“These changes are intended to help make the Bureau more efficient, effective, and accountable, and I plan to seek both internal and external input as I continue to evaluate how we work,” Mulvaney wrote, saying he didn’t expect but couldn’t rule out layoffs from the move. I’ve got more here: http://bit.ly/2DW27lp.

 

Happy Thursday and welcome back 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.

 

Hatch wades into war over credit union tax exemption: The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee expressed fears in a Wednesday letter to a top U.S. regulator over whether credit unions are sticking to their intended purpose while they’re still exempt from federal corporate income tax.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) pressed National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Chairman Mark McWatters on his efforts to loosen restrictions on credit union activities.  

Hatch wrote that he’s “concerned that the credit union industry is evolving in ways that take many credit unions further from their original tax-exempt purpose.” He cited moves by McWatters to loosen the field of membership constraints and allow credit unions to lend to businesses and expand their financial portfolios.

“While these may be worthwhile pursuits, they should give us pause and cause a reflection on the core mission of credit unions,” Hatch wrote. 

Hatch’s letter comes as the long-running feud between credit unions and community banks reignites over regulatory relief: http://bit.ly/2DTvVyV.

 

GOP chairman: Republican reactions ‘mixed’ on gas tax increase: House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) on Thursday said he received a “mixed” reaction when he brought up the gas tax during an infrastructure meeting at the GOP retreat.

Shuster said the subject “was the elephant in the room” during a working session that included several lawmakers, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and White House economic adviser Gary Cohn.

“Look, nobody wants to raise taxes. Nobody wants to raise fees in this country,” Shuster told reporters at The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.

Shuster has long maintained that all options are on the table to contribute to an infrastructure overhaul, though he has also noted the gas tax hike’s unpopularity among Republicans: http://bit.ly/2DVj9zQ

 

Hostess gives employees $1,250, free snacks after GOP tax cuts: Hostess Brands Inc. announced it will give workers one-time bonuses of $1,250 and one year of free snacks as a result of the new GOP tax legislation.

The company produces bakery snack cakes such as Twinkies, Ho Hos, Zingers and Sno Balls. Each week this year, a representative from one of the company’s bakeries will choose a different product, which employees will take home in multi-packs, according to Bloomberg.

Workers will receive the monetary bonus in the form of $750 in cash and a $500 contribution to their 401k.

Hostess Executive Chairman C. Dean Metropolous told Bloomberg in a statement that the changes to the tax plan have allowed the company to alter its benefits structure.

“The company’s management and board take great pleasure in sharing the company’s success with our employees,” he said.

Hostess is the latest in a string of companies who have said they will use the large corporate tax cut in the new GOP tax law to invest in their workers: http://bit.ly/2DXjaTZ.

 

Leading US steel companies urge Trump to immediately curb imports: A group of leading U.S. steel companies urged President Trump, in a letter on Thursday, to impose policies that would limit steel imports, Reuters reported. 

“We urge you to implement a remedy that is comprehensive and broad based, covering all major sources of steel imports and the full range of steel products, with only limited exceptions for products not currently available in the United States,” the letter stated.

Twenty-five U.S. steel companies and groups signed the letter, which comes as Trump is weighing whether to take action on a report regarding the national security implications of steel imports.

The Commerce Department in early January sent Trump the report, and gave him 90 days to decide whether to take action on steel importers in response: http://bit.ly/2DR7rX0.