| Happy Thursday and welcome back to Overnight Finance, the newsletter with no term limit. 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@thehill.com or tweet me @SylvanLane. And if you like your newsletter, you can subscribe to it here: http://bit.ly/1NxxW2N. THE BIG DEAL: The House will vote on a GOP farm bill next week that would impose tougher work requirements on food stamp recipients. The revamp of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, is considered a legacy item for Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who has sought to enact welfare reform as part of his "Better Way" agenda. The farm bill includes language that would tighten the work requirements for millions of food stamp recipients and shift more federal funding toward job training. The thinking is that this will help lift people out of poverty and get welfare recipients back on their feet. But the GOP conference is divided over the changes, with some moderate Republicans worried the requirements are too tough and others worried the changes don't go far enough. Democrats have blasted the legislation as nothing more than a messaging bill, noting that the measure stands little chance of passing the Senate. The Hill's Melanie Zanona explains the showdown here. Why it matters: Under the measure, all able-bodied adults between the ages of 18 and 59 have to be working or enrolled in a training program for at least 20 hours per week in order to qualify for food stamps. People who are elderly, disabled or pregnant would be exempt from the requirements. Battles are also expected over the federal sugar subsidy program, which is authorized by the farm bill and is routinely a fight that cuts across party lines. LEADING THE DAY Watchdog asks DOJ to probe Cohen dealings: A government watchdog group is asking the Justice Department and officials on Capitol Hill to investigate whether President Trump's longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen violated lobbying laws. Public Citizen on Thursday sent a complaint to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, as well as offices in the House and Senate that oversee the compilation of lobbying disclosure records, requesting a probe into whether Cohen willingly failed to file reports about his clients. The complaint comes after reports surfaced this week that Cohen amassed a handful of corporate clients following Trump's election in 2016, and that the lawyer reportedly promised them access to the new administration. Key quote: "The public record thus far strongly suggests that Cohen made specific solicitations to companies who had business pending before the Trump administration, proposing that he could best assist in the pursuit of their interests, which could well constitute lobbying activity," Public Citizen wrote in its complaint. AT&T and pharmaceutical giant Novartis are two companies that confirmed they paid Cohen for his insights. Cohen roundup: The storm around Cohen is growing and casting a shadow on the White House. AT&T also reportedly paid Cohen for advice on its merger with Time Warner, The Washington Post reports. Rudy Giuliani meanwhile told The Hill the media needs to "calm down" about the payments to Cohen. NAFTA talks hit roadblock over auto imports: From The Washington Post: "Negotiations over a new North American trade deal have hit a major snag, leaving White House officials increasingly uncertain of their ability to hit their May 18 deadline for securing congressional approval of a new deal before year's end. "The main stumbling block involves a dispute over determining which automobiles are given duty-free treatment under the agreement, according to five industry and U.S. government sources. "After almost nine months of negotiations, the United States and its trading partners, Canada and Mexico, remain far apart on a host of contentious issues, including U.S. demands that the treaty must be renewed every five years." Treasury hits largest April surplus on record at $214.3 billion: The U.S. Treasury Department posted a banner month in April, with a financial surplus of $214.3 billion, the largest April surplus on record, according to the department's monthly statement on receipts and outlays. April is typically a surplus month for the Treasury, as taxpayers file and shell out sums they owe the government. But the April surge does not necessarily portend good news for the overall deficit. The Treasury report still estimated that the annual deficit would boom this year, rising to $833 billion from roughly $665 billion in 2017. The cumulative deficit for the fiscal year is already $41 billion higher than at the same point last year, according to the report. The Hill's Niv Elis breaks it down here. Flake says he won't vote to make individual tax cuts permanent: Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on Thursday said he wouldn't vote to extend the new tax law's individual cuts, arguing it would be a "show vote" on legislation with no chance of passing. "I think that that is an act of bad faith, to pass something to fit it under the budget window and then as soon as you get past that political peril, then you go and have a show vote to make the tax cuts permanent when all it is is an election maneuver," he said at an event hosted by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. Republicans have been discussing holding a vote this year on permanently extending the individual tax cuts. While a bill to do so would be unlikely to pass the Senate, many Republicans view the vote as a smart political move to force Democrats to go on the record in an election year. Flake, however, said he's "going to have problems" if there's a desire to make the individual cuts permanent without any offsets or an agreement to cut mandatory spending. The Hill's Naomi Jagoda tells us why.
House to take up Senate's Dodd-Frank rollback before Memorial Day: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Thursday that the House will vote on the Senate's bipartisan bill to loosen Dodd-Frank before Memorial Day. The announcement is the latest positive sign for banks and credit unions who've been pushing the House to act for months.
It's not major news, as McCarthy and Ryan have said for a couple of weeks now that the Senate bill should be done by Memorial Day. But the announcement should help dispel lingering concerns about the bill getting lost in the legislative sprint toward the midterm elections. MARKET CHECK: Stocks had a day of healthy gains, with all three major indexes rising close to 1 percent each. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.80 percent on a 196-point spike, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose 0.94 and 0.89 percent respectively. FINANCE IN FOCUS: Congress, Trump eye new agency to invest in projects overseas. Lawmakers are pushing to revamp the way the U.S assists and invests in struggling countries, finding a rare area of agreement with President Trump when it comes to foreign aid. With little fanfare, lawmakers are advancing two identical bipartisan bills in the House and Senate that would consolidate several federal international development agencies and expand their investment tools. The White House is onboard, making it one of the few times the president has sought to bolster, rather than slash, the foreign aid system. Key foreign allies and businesses groups are supportive of the legislation, which, so far, has faced little opposition in Congress. The effort would create a new U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (IDFC) to replace the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). That entity invests in and draws private capital to international development projects meant to advance U.S. interests. I'll have more on that plan and how it would work on TheHill.com tomorrow morning. GOOD TO KNOW - Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney announced a sweeping reorganization of the bureau that could see the acting director have more influence over enforcement and supervision and lead to more political oversight of its consumer complaint database, according to Bloomberg Law.
- Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect the next recession to start in 2020.
- The Washington Post looks inside the GOP struggle to sell voters on its tax law.
- Kentucky landscapers and contractors told McClatchy that the Trump administration's cuts to the H-2B foreign seasonal labor program may put them out of business.
- A group of Democratic senators is asking White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney to release details of his schedule following comments he made about meeting with lobbyists who donated money to his campaign.
- Wells Fargo CEO Timothy Sloan said the bank's asset cap imposed by the Federal Reserve will continue into the first part of 2019, according to The Wall Street Journal.
ODDS AND ENDS - Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska has handed back three private jets he was leasing because U.S. sanctions imposed on him last month make it impossible to keep using the planes, the firm retained by the owners to sell the aircraft told Reuters on Thursday.
- A labor union for Harley-Davidson met with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) this week to criticize the motorcycle maker after the company announced plans to build a plant in Thailand while closing a factory in Missouri.
| 
沒有留言:
張貼留言