 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. 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. Write us with tips, suggestions and news: slane@thehill.com, vneedham@thehill.com, njagoda@thehill.com and nelis@thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @SylvanLane, @VickofTheHill, @NJagoda and @NivElis. THE BIG DEAL--Schumer calls on McConnell to walk Trump back as partial shutdown nears: Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday blasted President Trump, saying he threw a "temper tantrum" in their dramatic televised White House meeting the day before and urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to walk him back. "It is difficult, if nearly impossible, to negotiate with a president in front of the press who peddles such blatant and dangerous falsehoods. And because Leader Pelosi and I simply didn't go along with him, President Trump threw a temper tantrum and promised to shut the government unless he got what he wanted," Schumer said from the Senate floor. Recap: Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) battled angrily with Trump over the U.S.-Mexico border wall during the Oval Office meeting, during which the president said he would take the "mantle" for a partial government shutdown. Both sides remain far apart over funding for the border, with Tuesday's White House showdown increasing the chances of a partial government shutdown. Trump and Republicans are demanding $5 billion for the border, while Democrats say $1.3 billion is their cap. The Hill's Jordain Carney tells us where things stand here. Shutdown 'more than possible,' says top Senate appropriator: The chances of a partial government shutdown next Friday are "more than possible," according to Sen. Richard Shelby, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "I don't think it's inevitable. It's probably more than possible right now," he told reporters in the Capitol. "It'll shut down unless we resolve some things." Unless Congress and President Trump can reach a deal, largely centered around the president's demand to fund a wall along the southern border, seven spending bills will lapse after Dec. 21, shutting down the agencies governed in those bills. Niv Elis breaks down what's left to do here. House GOP struggles to win votes for wall: House Republicans are also struggling to come up with a strategy to fulfill Trump's demands that the lower chamber pass a funding bill that includes $5 billion for his promised border wall.
By Wednesday evening, GOP leaders still had not settled on what vehicle they would use to fund the wall or if they would even take a vote this week to do so. Lawmakers in the House have until just Dec. 21 to avert a partial government shutdown, and are only scheduled to be working for four of those days. "The president is still interested in trying to get a deal," Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) told The Hill as he emerged from a leadership meeting in Speaker Paul Ryan's ceremonial office just off the House floor. Scott Wong and Juliegrace Brufke tell us why the House GOP is in a jam Shutdown would affect 800K federal workers, Senate Dems say: A partial government shutdown would affect 800,000 federal workers, according to projections by Senate Democrats. That would lead 380,000 workers to be furloughed, including most employees at NASA, the Department of Commerce and the National Park Service. Typically, Congress decides to pay federal employees for shutdown-related furloughs when a deal is struck to end the shutdown, but long furloughs can cause uncertainty and delays in pay. In the event of a shutdown, staff deemed essential are required to continue working, but without pay. Democrats estimated that some 420,000 workers would fall into that category, including FBI agents, prison correctional officers and Homeland Security employees such as TSA and Customs and Border security. Niv has more here. LEADING THE DAY House passes $867 billion farm bill, sending it to Trump: The House on Wednesday passed an $867 billion farm bill to help those in the agricultural industry, sending the legislation to President Trump for a signature. The measure easily passed the lower chamber by a 369-47 vote. The legislation, which passed the Senate in an 87-13 vote on Tuesday, expands farm subsidies and includes language legalizing hemp production. It also provides funding for farmers markets and programs for organic farmers, as well as authorizes funding for nutrition programs over the next five years. The focal point: The measure ultimately did not include an earlier provision aimed at placing stronger work requirements for food stamps, much to the dismay of conservatives. Democrats strongly opposed the provision -- which received strong support from House Republicans and President Trump -- arguing the change would be detrimental to the safety net relied upon by low-income earners. Juliegrace Brufke tells us more about that battle here. Trump signs order to help revitalize economically distressed communities: President Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order aimed at helping economically distressed communities, building off a provision in his tax-cut law. The order creates a White House panel dubbed the Opportunity and Revitalization Council, which will be led by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and consist of representatives from 13 federal agencies. At a signing ceremony at the White House, Trump called the council a "very big thing" and said that the council will help utilize government resources to rebuild "impoverished neighborhoods that have been ignored by Washington in years past." The details: The executive order is designed to supplement a piece of Trump's 2017 tax-cut law known as opportunity zones. Under the opportunity zone program, investors can receive capital-gains tax breaks if they invest in distressed areas that were certified by the Treasury Department. More than 8,000 communities nationwide, where nearly 35 million people live, are in opportunity zones. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said that he expects that there will be about $100 billion in private capital invested in the zones. Naomi Jagoda has more here. Consumer bureau morale plummeted under Mulvaney: report: Morale at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) plummeted under former acting chief Mick Mulvaney, according to a Wednesday report from a good-government nonprofit. Staff sentiment at the polarizing financial regulator sunk sharply between 2017 and 2018 as Mulvaney, who served at the same time as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, reeled in the agency's activities, according to the Partnership for Public Service's annual ranking of best places to work in the federal government. The nonprofit ranked the staff morale at 488 organizations by analyzing employee surveys filed to the federal government between April and June. The CFPB was among several agencies that gave the nonprofit additional data from its own surveys. The CFPB's morale score plunged from 77.9 in 2017 to 51.7 this year. The 25.2-point drop was the largest among the 27 midsize federal agencies -- with between 1,000 and 14,999 employees -- analyzed, and sunk the bureau's ranking from seventh to 26th among those groups. I'll tell you why that might have happened here. GOOD TO KNOW - The Senate on Wednesday approved a Democratic resolution that would overturn IRS guidance reducing the amount of donor information that certain tax-exempt groups have to provide to the agency.
- Grass-roots activists in New York have been canvassing Long Island City and other parts of Queens to organize opposition to Amazon's upcoming move there, with hundreds joining a meeting Monday night to protest against the company.
- Politico previews the upcoming battle over Trump's pick to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
- The Wall Street Journal explores how federal regulators are asking bank examiners to "adopt a less aggressive tone when flagging risky practices."
- Bloomberg looks into the potential consequences for Trump if he halts the extradition of Huawei's chief financial officer in order to grease a trade deal with China.
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