Hillicon Valley: Facebook to let users clear history | Black lawmakers push diversity during Silicon Valley visit | Rosenstein hits back at Republicans who want to impeach him | Apple plans $100B stock buyback

View in Browser     The Hill's Overnight Cybersecurity and Tech teams are joining forces to bring you Hillicon Valley, a new comprehensive newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.   Welcome! Follow the tech team, Ali Breland (@alibreland) and Harper Neidig (@hneidig), and the cyber team, Morgan Chalfant (@mchalfant16) and Olivia Beavers (@olivia_beavers), on Twitter.   FACEBOOK TO LET USERS CLEAR HISTORY: Mark Zuckerberg promised during his congressional testimony that Facebook would improve data privacy on its platform, and the company announced a new tool on Tuesday taking a step toward that goal. Zuckerberg said on Tuesday that Facebook will create a "clear history" option allowing users to erase data about the apps and websites they've interacted with while logged into Facebook. Facebook is moving to quell concerns about data privacy following the revelations about Cambridge Analytica, a British research firm hired by the Trump campaign that improperly harvested the data of 87 million Facebook users. --Zuckerberg on the change: "After going through our systems, this is an example of the kind of control we think you should have. It's something privacy advocates have been asking for -- and we will work with them to make sure we get it right," he wrote in a post. --Also worth noting: This is Facebook's first major privacy announcement since Erin Egan began focusing on the role of chief privacy officer at Facebook. She was previously in charge of their policy team in Washington as well. But the increasing scrutiny over the company's data policies led the company to have Egan focusing on privacy issues --From Egan: "As Chief Privacy Officer for the past six years, it's been rewarding to see the progress we've made. But now it's time to supercharge this work. Clear History is one of our first steps."   What to watch for: It remains to be seen how meaningful the changes will be and what "Clear History" will actually look like. Zuckerberg said that users will be able to see what interactions they have on Facebook with ads and websites are tracked, and that they'll be able to delete them. But the final version of the tool has yet to be fully determined. Egan said that the Facebook will "work with privacy advocates, academics, policymakers and regulators to get their input on our approach," towards a final product. Zuckerberg said that there are also more announcements in the works down the line.     WHAT'S HILL-HAPPENING: Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are visiting Silicon Valley to push the tech industry to improve diversity. The visit is part of the group's Tech 2020 initiative, which calls on companies to boost the numbers of African-Americans they employ. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), whose Oakland district borders the country's tech hub, expressed frustration with the industry's efforts. "Silicon Valley's economy is booming but we still don't have the parity and equity in terms of racial inclusion," Lee told The Hill on Monday. "The lack of understanding of why racial equity is important is mind-boggling to me." --This is their second visit since last fall. So far though lawmakers have had more praise for the industry's efforts on diversity and racial issues than during their last visit.   THE MUELLER FILES: SHOT... HOUSE CONSERVATIVES DRAFT ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST DEPUTY AG ROSENSTEIN: A group of conservative House lawmakers have begun drafting a resolution that calls for the impeachment of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the top Department of Justice (DOJ) official overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. The impeachment document makes a series of charges against Rosenstein, the latest sign of escalating efforts among conservatives to oust the DOJ's No. 2 official, according to a copy of the draft obtained by The Hill. Conservative members led by Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus and a close ally to President Trump, drafted the eight articles of impeachment against Rosenstein. The articles include allegations that Rosenstein violated federal law by refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena over Congress's efforts to obtain documents about FBI surveillance during the election, intentionally stalling document production for congressional investigations into possible government misconduct and failing to enforce key laws and protocols. BUT BUT BUT... There has been no indication, however, that Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and other House GOP leaders will act on the measure, having largely remained silent amid calls for his removal by hard-line conservatives. To read more, click here.   CHASER... ROSENSTEIN FIRES BACK: The deputy attorney general on Tuesday appeared to shrug off the news. "They can't even resist leaking their own drafts," Rosenstein quipped during a moderated discussion at the Newseum to commemorate Law Day. Rosenstein said the standards the Department of Justice (DOJ) follows for making charges against someone are far different than how the drafters approached making allegations in this document -- leaked and unsigned. "The way we operate in the Department of Justice, if we are going to accuse someone of wrongdoing, we have to have admissible evidence, and credible witnesses, we need to be prepared to prove our case in court. And we have to fix our signature to the charging document, and that is something that not everybody appreciates," Rosenstein told the audience. "I just don't have anything to say about documents like that that nobody has the courage to put their name on and they leak in that way," he continued. Rosenstein also added: "There have been people who have been making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time, and I think they should understand by now the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted." To read more, click here.   LATEST: A White House spokesman brushed off the extortion remark, saying it had "nothing to do with us."   SPEAKING OF SPECIAL COUNSEL MUELLER: He's got dozens of questions for President Trump, reports The New York Times. The White House isn't commenting.   TECH'S TROUBLES IN EUROPE: Damian Collins, the British MP who's been hounding Facebook in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, threatened Mark Zuckerberg with formal summons unless he agrees to testify in front of Parliament's committee on digital media. "It is worth noting that, while Mr Zuckerberg does not normally come under the jurisdiction of the UK Parliament, he will do so the next time he enters the country," Collins wrote in a letter to the company. "We hope that he will respond positively to our request, but if not the Committee will resolve to issue a formal summons for him to appear when he is next in the UK." The panel had invited Zuckerberg to testify last month, but he declined. Collins is clearly unhappy that Facebook sent its chief technology officer instead, and sent the social network a list of 39 questions that he says were left unanswered during last week's grilling. To read more, click here.   And at the EU, the top watchdog for data privacy likened internet firms that rely on data collection to "sweatshops" and warned them not to look for ways to work around the new privacy law coming later this month. "Brilliant lawyers will always be able to fashion ingenious arguments to justify almost any practice," Giovanni Buttarelli wrote in a blog post. "But with personal data processing we need to move to a different model. The old approach is broken and unsustainable - that will be, in my view, the abiding lesson of the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica case." To read more, click here.   LIGHTER (TWITTER) CLICK: The secretary of State is now on Twitter.   NEW TROUBLING CYBER RESEARCH: A cybersecurity firm is warning that a malicious Chrome extension is using a series of new techniques to target cryptocurrency platforms. FacexWorm, which was first uncovered in August 2017, is accessing these digital wallets by spreading through affected web browsers as well as through shared socially engineered links on Facebook Messenger, Trend Micro wrote in a blog post on Monday. "The links redirect to a fake YouTube page that will ask unwitting users to agree and install a codec extension (FacexWorm) in order to play the video on the page. It will then request privilege to access and change data on the opened website," according to Trend Micro's analysis. Its capabilities, however, have changed. The malware now is able to steal key data from certain websites of interest, including data like account information and credentials. But don't freak out quite yet: Despite its savvy methods of entry, the FacexWorm's impact appears to be relatively minor. To read more, click here.   BREACHES GOT YOU STRESSIN': According to a new survey from Kaspersky Lab, a whopping 81 percent of Americans (and 72 percent of Canadians) say they're feeling stressed out by news of data breaches. The main culprit for this heightened worrying? A lack of awareness among consumers about how they can protect themselves, says the company.   FCC COMMISSIONER FOUND TO HAVE VIOLATED ETHICS LAW AT CPAC: FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly violated an ethics law during an appearance at CPAC earlier this year, a federal watchdog found. The Office of Special Counsel, which is tasked with policing federal agencies for Hatch Act violations, issued a warning letter to O'Rielly for urging voters to re-elect President Trump. "Commissioner O'Rielly advocated for the reelection of President Trump in his official capacity as FCC Commissioner," OSC official Erica Hamrick wrote in a letter to a public interest group. "Therefore, he violated the Hatch Act's prohibition against using his official authority or influence to affect an election." To read more, click here.   $100 BILLION IS A LOT OF MONEY: Apple plans to buy back $100 billion in shares, the company announced Tuesday. The move comes as Apple beat quarterly revenue and profit projections from analysts and as the company reaps the benefits of massive tax cuts from the Republican tax law. The new buyback comes on top of an existing plan to repurchase $210 billion worth of shares.   LONGREAD OF THE DAY: The Atlantic has a piece today laying out why the 2018 midterms are vulnerable to interference by malicious actors. Congressional Democrats have said they will not use stolen or hacked data as they campaign to win in November, reports the publication, but Republicans have stayed silent on whether they will do the same.  Concerns about the potential for future foreign interference have mounted since the U.S. intelligence community revealed that Russia engaged in a hacking and disinformation campaign against the 2016 vote. Officials say that Moscow's intent has not changed. Check out the full piece from The Atlantic here.   ON TAP FOR TOMORROW: Keep an eye out for some new stories on TheHill.com Wednesday morning about the security of critical infrastructure and "active cyber defenses."   FROM TODAY'S HILL OPINION PAGE: NASA just proved it is serious about returning to the moon. (The Hill)   NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB: Count 'em: Three steps to secure elections. (The Advanced Cyber Security Center) NIST wants your help to keep big data safe. (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Federal IT official says focus on the 'dwell time.' (NextGov) Over 400 UK businesses affected by NIS cybersecurity regulation. (SC Media) Steve Ballmer sold his stake in Twitter (Bloomberg)           Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for Technology Newsletters     Forward Technology Newsletters       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2016 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

Overnight Defense: US-backed forces launch Syria offensive against ISIS | Trump glows in Nobel Peace Prize chatter | Trump 'seriously thinking' about 'Space Force'

View in your browser     THE TOPLINE: Forces backed by the United States have launched an offensive to drive ISIS from its final strongholds in northeast Syria, U.S. officials announced Tuesday. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by the U.S. military and its international coalition, announced Tuesday that it would begin offensive operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the Middle Euphrates River Valley. "We continue to stand alongside our partners and ensure the liberation of all terrain held by ISIS terrorists," Maj. Gen. James Jarrard, commanding general of the Special Operations Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, said in a statement. "This is a key milestone in bringing lasting stability to both Iraq and Syria." In a separate statement, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nuaert said that the "days of ISIS controlling territory and terrorizing the people of Syria are coming to an end."   Attempting to break last ISIS holdouts: Operations against ISIS in the Middle Eastern river valley stalled earlier this year after Turkey launched an offensive against Kurdish forces in Afrin, Syria. Many of the Kurdish fighters in the SDF -- which make up the bulk of that force -- left the fight against ISIS to go bolster fellow Kurds in Afrin. But the Kurdish fighters have been returning to the SDF since Turkey seized Afrin, Pentagon officials have said.  On Tuesday, the SDF promised to end ISIS's presence in eastern Syria "once and for all."   Mixed messages on progress: Pentagon officials have said ISIS has lost about 90 percent of the territory it once held in Iraq and Syria. That's down from a previous assessment that the terrorist group lost 98 percent of its territory -- a change Pentagon officials have attributed to ISIS gains in areas that were controlled by forces loyal to the Syrian President Bashar Assad. The latest offensive comes after President Trump promised last month that U.S. troops would be coming home "very soon." He's since walked that back, agreeing to leave U.S. troops in Syria until ISIS is defeated and suggesting he's open to leaving troops there beyond that.      MATTIS TEMPERS OUTLOOK ON AFGHANISTAN AFTER BOMBINGS: Defense Secretary James Mattis on Tuesday sought to temper media reports that the Pentagon has taken a more optimistic outlook on Afghanistan, a day after a pair of suicide bombings in Kabul killed at least 35 people, including 10 journalists. Mattis, when asked how to reconcile the bombings with recent Pentagon statements suggesting an improving outlook, said he would "not subscribe to that" line of thinking. "I don't know that that's been the message from this building. ... We said last August NATO is going to hold the line, we knew there would be tough fighting going forward," Mattis told reporters before meeting with Macedonian Defense Minister Radmila Šekerinska.   Deadly bombings: An affiliate group of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has claimed credit for the recent attack, the deadliest single incident against journalists in Afghanistan since 2002. After the first suicide bombing, another militant detonated his explosives after journalists convened to cover the first blast. Mattis said that while the military anticipates such attacks and "have been successful at blocking many of these ... unfortunately once in a while they get through." The White House on Tuesday also strongly condemned the attack. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there was "absolutely no justification for such a senseless and heinous act."   Attacks come as Afghan security forces shrink...: The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) this week released a new report that found that Afghan army and police forces have shrunk by about 36,000 personnel in a year. The report also found that, since August 2016, insurgents have expanded control over parts of the country by 4 percent. About 14.5 percent of the country's total districts "were under insurgent control or influence - the highest level recorded since SIGAR began receiving district control data," according to the report.   ...and the military IDs a service member who was killed: The Pentagon on Tuesday identified a soldier who was killed the previous day during a combat operation in eastern Afghanistan. Spc. Gabriel D. Conde, 22, of Loveland, Colo., was killed in action by enemy gunfire in Tagab district, the Pentagon said in a statement. Conde was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, U.S. Army Alaska, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.   MORE SPACE FORCE CHATTER: Trump on Tuesday said his administration is "seriously thinking" about creating a new military branch known as the "Space Force." "You will be part of the five proud branches of the United States Armed Forces: Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and the Coast Guard. And we're actually thinking of a sixth, and that would be the Space Force," Trump said in the White House Rose Garden while presenting the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy to the Army football team. "Does that make sense?" he asked. "You probably haven't even heard that. I'm just telling you now because we're getting very big in space, both militarily and for other reasons. And we are seriously thinking of the Space Force."   The background: Trump in March first pushed for the idea of creating a new military branch that would specialize in fighting and policy in space. "You know, I was saying it the other day -- because we're doing a tremendous amount of work in space -- I said, 'Maybe we need a new force, we'll call it the Space Force.' And I was not really serious, and then I said, 'What a great idea, maybe we'll have to do that. That could happen,'" Trump said during a speech at Air Station Miramar in San Diego at the time.   ON NORTH KOREA TALKS: Trump is basking in the glow of chatter that he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts on the Korea peninsula. Trump's supporters -- and even the South Korean president -- say that getting North Korea to denuclearize and end the Korean War would be a monumental achievement worthy of the prize.   But is a Nobel Peace Prize likely? It's far from sure, of course, that Trump's upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un will lead to a lasting peace deal, and Trump himself on Tuesday appeared to suggest that people are getting a bit ahead of themselves. "I just think that President Moon [Jae-in] was very nice when he suggested it," Trump said Tuesday when asked about his Nobel prospects. "I want to get peace. The main thing, we want to get peace. It was a big problem, and I think it's going to work out well. It's certainly possible that Trump could have been nominated for this year's peace prize, which former President Obama won in 2009. The cut-off for nominations is February 1, however, which came after the news of the Trump-Kim meeting. That means a 2019 nomination for Trump might be more likely.    Where the peace prize suggestion came from: The talk of Trump deserving a Nobel picked up after the Kim-Moon summit last week resulted in a joint declaration saying they are committed to denuclearizing the peninsula and ending the Korean War. South Korean President Moon suggested Trump might deserve a Nobel Peace Prize if peace on the Korean peninsula is achieved. Then on Friday, Rep. Luke Messer (R-Ind.), who is in a crowded Senate primary campaign, released a statement saying he was gathering support from his colleagues to nominate Trump for the award in 2019. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has also talked about Trump deserving the award if there's a peace deal.   ON TAP FOR TOMORROW Director of the Army National Guard Gen. Timothy Kadavy will speak at the Institute of Land Warfare Breakfast Series at 6:30 a.m. at the Association of the United States Army in Arlington, VA.  Dave Trachtenberg, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, will speak as part of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies' breakfast at 8 a.m. at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C.  Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson will speak at the annual Meeting of the U.S. Naval Institute at 4 p.m. at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.  Nonprofit debate series Intelligence Squared U.S. is hosting a debate tomorrow evening on the motion "Negotiations Can Denuclearize North Korea." It will live stream from D.C.    ICYMI: -- The Hill: US Russian fighter intercepts Navy plane over Baltic Sea: report -- The Hill: White House revises statement saying Iran 'has' secret nuclear weapons program -- The Hill: Kerry says Netanyahu showed why Iran nuclear deal was needed: 'It's working' -- The Hill: Pentagon weighs possible investigation into Trump's former VA pick -- The Hill: Opinion: If Trump pulls out of the Iran deal, what's our new strategy? -- The Hill: Opinion: Israel's intelligence coup accentuates Iran's nuclear threat  -- The Hill: Opinion: The details reveal the true danger of Iran's secret nuclear program -- The Hill: Opinion: US must avoid Soviet-era disarmament mistakes with North Korea's bioweapons -- Defense News: Trump gaffes on attack aircraft sale to Nigeria     Please send tips and comments to Rebecca Kheel, rkheel@thehill.com, and Ellen Mitchell, emitchell@thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @thehill, @Rebecca_H_K, @EllenMitchell23         Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for Defense Newsletters     Forward Defense Newsletters       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2016 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

Overnight Finance: Trump delays tariffs for key trading partners | Dems want investigation into Mulvaney lobbyist remarks | Trump lawyer Cohen hit with $282K tax bill | Apple plans $100B stock buyback

View in your browser     Happy Tuesday and welcome back to Overnight Finance, where all of our favorite readers are exempted from tariffs forever. 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: President Trump is delaying a decision on implementing steel and aluminum tariffs for several close U.S. trading partners, avoiding a major trade skirmish for now.  Trump is pushing the decisions to June 1 for the European Union (EU), Canada and Mexico while reaching preliminary agreements with several other U.S. allies ahead of a looming midnight deadline, the White House announced on Monday evening. Negotiations will continue for the next 30 days with the 28-member bloc, as well as Canada and Mexico. The White House said this would be the final period to reach a deal with the key trading partners. The administration has also reached agreements in principle on tariffs with Australia, Argentina and Brazil, which are expected to be completed in the next month. The countries, which represent major metals exporters to the United States, have been in negotiations for weeks with the Trump administration to avoid steep tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum. The Hill's Vicki Needham and Niv Elis tell us more here.    EU, UK call for permanent exemption: The European Union and the United Kingdom urged the White House to grant them permanent exemptions from steep steel and aluminum tariffs to avoid further inflaming trade tensions. U.S. allies keen to work with Washington and other trading partners on global overcapacity of steel say Trump's decision to delay the tariffs by a month only creates more problems.  "The U.S. decision prolongs market uncertainty, which is already affecting business decisions," the European Commission said in a statement. "The EU should be fully and permanently exempted from these measures, as they cannot be justified on the grounds of national security," the Commission said. Read more here.   What comes next: Canada and Mexico, which have repeatedly said they expect a permanent exemption from the tariffs, were not given any guarantees despite weeks of recent negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Talks on NAFTA, which have been ongoing for the past month in Washington, will resume on May 7.  Trade leaders in Mexico and Canada have rejected Trump's attempts to tie their tariff treatment to the outcome of the massive trade agreement. The EU, which has been a vocal critic of the tariffs, has threatened $3.5 billion in retaliatory tariffs on jeans, motorcycles and orange juice if Trump follows through with metals tariffs.     ON TAP FOR TOMORROW Center for Responsible Lending and several civil rights groups host a discussion on the Federal Housing Administration, 8:45 a.m. The Brookings Institution hosts an event on the future of trade in U.S.-Japan relations, 10 a.m. The Heritage Foundation hosts an event entitled "Deconstructing the Administrative State: How Corporations and Big Government Collaborate," 11 a.m.   LEADING THE DAY Senate Dems request investigation of Mulvaney over lobbyist remarks: A group of Senate Democrats want federal investigators to probe if Mick Mulvaney, Trump's budget director and the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), broke a law that limits political activities for federal employees.  Mulvaney, who is both the director of the Office of Management and Budget and the interim chief of the CFPB, told bankers last week that when he was a member of Congress he had a "hierarchy" and would only consider meeting with lobbyists who donated to his campaigns.  "If you were a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn't talk to you. If you were a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you. If you came from back home and sat in my lobby, I would talk to you without exception, regardless of the financial contributions," Mulvaney said. Democratic Sens. Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Ron Wyden (Ore.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.) and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) sent a letter to the Office of Special Counsel on Tuesday asking for an investigation of whether Mulvaney violated the Hatch Act. The Hill's Jordain Carney has more on the request here.   Trump lawyer Michael Cohen hit with $282k tax bill in New York: President Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes relating to his ownership of a number of New York City taxi cabs, Bloomberg News reports. Cohen in April was hit with state warrants for $185,000 in unpaid taxes on his taxi companies, a hefty sum that raises his total tax debt on a number of various taxi firms to $282,000, according to the report. The top Trump aide built his wealth owning taxi medallions in Chicago and New York before eventually joining the Trump Organization as Trump's personal "fixer," the news outlet noted. FBI agents during a raid of Cohen's offices sought information related to the medallions, possibly signaling a new look at his finances. Cohen himself reportedly owns around 30 medallions for taxis in New York and owns about 22 cabs in Chicago.   Apple announces $100-billion stock buyback fueled by tax-cut profits: Apple plans to buy back $100 billion in shares, the company announced Tuesday. The move comes as Apple beat quarterly revenue and profit projections from analysts and as the company reaps the benefits of massive tax cuts from the Republican tax law. The new buyback comes on top of an existing plan to repurchase $210 billion worth of shares. The company increased its dividends by 16 percent as well, raising them to 73 cents a share. Here's more from The Hill's Ali Breland.   Further reading: Investment boom from Trump's tax cut has yet to appear -- The New York Times   MARKET CHECK: Stocks were mixed Tuesday as losses in industrials and consumer goods battled with gains in tech shares. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sunk 64 points (0.27 percent) on the day while the Nasdaq gained close to 1 percent, boosted by Apple's positive earnings report. The S&P 500 rose 0.25 percent.   FINANCE IN FOCUS: Lawmakers are pushing to bolster the power of a secretive federal panel that monitors foreign investments for national security risks. The House and Senate are close to acting on a bipartisan proposal that would expand the kinds of business deals that can be blocked or impeded by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. (CFIUS), an interagency committee led by the Treasury secretary. The Trump administration has endorsed the bill, which would expand the jurisdiction of CFIUS and add layers of national security analysis to the panel's reviews. Check TheHill.com tomorrow morning for my full look at how lawmakers want to empower CFIUS and why those plans are sending chills throughout the business world.   GOOD TO KNOW The top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee is urging the Treasury Department and IRS to issue guidance "as soon as possible" on a new deduction for business income created by the GOP tax law. U.S. factory managers are fuming about Trump's tariffs, according to Bloomberg. Ether, the second-most-valuable cryptocurrency, is under regulatory scrutiny, according to The Wall Street Journal. President Trump's proposed tariffs on Chinese imports, combined with retaliation promised by Beijing, would hurt the economy and cause U.S. job losses, a new study showed on Tuesday. Chipmaker stocks jumped late Tuesday after Apple reported steady iPhone sales, easing fears of a significant decline.   ODDS AND ENDS The Republican National Committee (RNC) has spent nearly a quarter of a million dollars on a Trump Organization resort in Florida ahead of its conference there this week, financial disclosure documents show.     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.         Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for Finance Newsletters     Forward Finance Newsletters       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2016 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.