Happy Wednesday and welcome back to On The Money. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.
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THE BIG DEAL–Trump, Senate leadership to huddle on border wall funding: Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said Wednesday that he and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will head to the White House this week to talk with President Trump about funding the government, including resolving a fight over the controversial border wall.
{mosads}Shelby said that he would likely have a better idea on where government funding talks stood after Thursday’s meeting, but stressed that lawmakers and the president should not force a partial shutdown of the government next month.
“I would always tell anybody, including the president, it’s not a good idea to shut down the government, period,” Shelby said.
The deadlines: Congress has until Dec. 7 to fund the rest of the government after lawmakers failed to approve seven of the 12 individual funding bills before the end of the fiscal year deadline.
Border wall funding has emerged as the biggest hurdle to getting a spending deal, though Shelby acknowledged Wednesday that other sticking points remain.
The Hill’s Jordain Carney explains what they are and what’s ahead here.
ON TAP TOMORROW
- Federal Reserve Vice Chairman of Supervision Randal Quarles testifies before the Senate Banking Committee on financial regulation, 10 a.m.
LEADING THE DAY
Fed bank regulator walks tightrope on Dodd-Frank: The Federal Reserve’s chief of financial regulation defended the central bank’s plans to ease strict Dodd-Frank Wall Street banking rules on Wednesday in the face of bipartisan criticism from the House Financial Services Committee.
Randal Quarles, the Fed vice chairman of supervision, has found himself walking a tightrope over his efforts to loosen critical capital and leverage rules.
Republicans are demanding Quarles push President Trump’s financial deregulatory agenda further along before Democrats who will take control of the House in January try to jam the Fed’s gears.
Democrats, on the other hand, have fiercely opposed GOP efforts to weaken key banking laws. The hearing, the first by the committee since last week’s midterm vote, also previewed the tougher scrutiny regulators can expect from the incoming House Democratic majority.
Democrats warned Quarles that they would fight any attempt to water down the post-crisis banking reforms and urged the Fed to tread carefully in 2019.
“Make no mistake: Come January in this committee, the days of this committee weakening regulations and putting our economy once again at risk of another financial crisis will come to an end,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (Calif.), the top Democrat on the Financial Services panel.
I’ll tell you more here.
Fed nominee Bowman advances to final vote in Senate: The Senate on Wednesday advanced President Trump’s nomination of Michelle Bowman to the Federal Reserve Board and is expected to confirm the former Kansas bank supervisor later this week.
Senators voted 63-36 to end debate on Bowman’s nomination to fill the Fed board seat reserved for officials with community bank experience.
Thirteen Democratic senators broke party ranks to support Bowman, a Republican, while Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was the sole GOP member to oppose her nomination.
Bowman is on track to be confirmed before the end of the week. She previously served as Kansas’ chief bank regulator and vice president at Farmers & Drovers Bank, a Kansas bank that reported $181 million in assets in 2017.
Koch-backed groups blast ‘carveouts’ for corporations after Amazon HQ2 deal: Groups backed by wealthy GOP donor Charles Koch on Wednesday criticized cities and states that give out special incentives to corporations, following Amazon’s announcement that it was splitting its second headquarters between New York City and Northern Virginia.
“Americans are fed up with wasteful corporate welfare, yet cities and states are breaking the taxpayer bank to give carveouts to huge corporations,” officials with Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce said in a statement. “We need a level playing field where businesses can succeed by creating value for others – not a group of politicians cobbling together massive subsidy packages that almost never deliver the jobs they promise.”
The numbers: Amazon said that it will collect more than $1.5 billion in incentives from New York and up to $550 million from Virginia in establishing its new offices. Many New York and Virginia politicians praised Amazon’s decision to pick their locations, saying it will lead to more jobs. But there’s also been criticism at the special incentives for a tech giant.
The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda has more here.
GOOD TO KNOW
- Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) reportedly told Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, to back off of investigating Facebook and its role in enabling Russia’s misinformation campaign in the U.S.
- Increased oil and gas production, as well as expanded access on public lands, are responsible for a surge in the Interior Department’s revenue this year, the administration said Wednesday.
- A congressional advisory panel warned that internet-linked electronics manufactured in China could pose a national security threat to the United States.
- Snap Inc. told Reuters Tuesday that the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission subpoenaed the social media company about their March 2017 initial public offering.
- Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat on Wednesday added to the chorus of bankers warning about looming credit risks in the nonbank sector.
- Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, lost his seat to Democratic challenger Andy Kim on Wednesday, resulting in a near-wipeout for the GOP in the state, The Associated Press reported.
ODDS AND ENDS
- Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), who is slated to be the next chairman of a House committee overseeing drug prices, said Wednesday that his top priorities on the issue are allowing Medicare to negotiate prices and speeding the approval of cheaper generic drugs.
- Facebook hired a Republican opposition research firm that linked the company’s detractors to Democratic donor and hedge fund billionaire George Soros, according to a report in The New York Times.
- The Trump administration on Wednesday added several Cuban tourist attractions to its list of places Americans cannot visit.