On tap tomorrow (pending cancellations for snow) LEADING THE DAY Funding bill not likely to include sales tax changes: Online sales tax legislation is not expected to be included in the omnibus spending bill set for votes this week, lawmakers said Monday evening. "I don't believe that's in there," House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said. Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) had been pushing leadership to include her measure, the Remote Transactions Parity Act, into the spending measure so that Congress acts on the issue before the Supreme Court issues a ruling in an upcoming case. Her bill would allow states to require out-of-state online retailers to collect their sales taxes, if the states simplify their sales-tax laws. But as The Hill's Naomi Jagoda reports, help for that effort is coming from the White House in another way. The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to let it participate in oral arguments in the online sales tax case. The move means White House's is pushing for more state authority to collect sales taxes on internet purchases. "Because the United States' participation in oral argument is likely to be of material assistance to the Court, the United States respectfully requests that it be granted ten minutes of petitioner's allotted argument time," Solicitor General Noel Francisco said in a motion filed Monday. The case before the court, South Dakota v. Wayfair, centers on a South Dakota law that requires certain out-of-state online retailers to collect the state's sales taxes. FTC reportedly probing Facebook: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reportedly launching an investigation into Facebook over whether it violated terms of a 2011 consent decree in the wake of reports a data firm harvested information from millions of profiles. Reports Tuesday said that the investigation relates to whether Facebook allowed Cambridge Analytica, the data firm used by the Trump campaign, to obtain some Facebook users' personal data in violation of its policies. "We are aware of the issues that have been raised but cannot comment on whether we are investigating," an FTC spokesperson told The Hill in an emailed statement. "We take any allegations of violations of our consent decrees very seriously as we did in 2012 in a privacy case involving Google." Shares of Facebook were down 5.7 percent by Tuesday afternoon, falling as low as $162, a nearly $10 drop. U.S. stocks on the whole gained throughout the day. Facebook closed with 2.5 percent loss. Facebook stock also sunk 6.7 percent on Monday, the first day of trading after reports of Cambridge Analytica's use of user data. Facebook is under pressure to explain how the researcher who provided the data was able to exploit privacy settings to obtain data from tens of millions of users without their permission. Mnuchin unmoved on tariffs: From Bloomberg News: "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin gave no ground on trade to policy makers from the world's largest economies, saying America's message was 'loud and clear' on protecting its interests. "Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations finished talks in the Argentine capital on Tuesday with little to show for their efforts to convince Mnuchin to pare back protectionist steps, including new metal tariffs. Rather, the U.S. ended up co-opting allies, many of whom lobbied for exemptions at the gathering. "The March 19-20 meeting occurred at a pivotal time for world leaders, as Trump starts to make good on campaign pledges to rebalance global trade in America's favor. The international response threatens to escalate trade tensions and undermine global economic growth, and is fueling uncertainty in markets that are already on edge as investors brace for higher U.S. interest rates." MARKET CHECK: Bouncy. U.S. stocks finished with gains across the board after several weeks of bleeding. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 0.47 percent higher today, while the Standard and Poor's 500 index and Nasdaq gained 0.15 and 0.27 percent each. GOOD TO KNOW ODDS AND ENDS - Billionaire Peter Thiel's venture firm is backing a new football league in an effort to counter the NFL.
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