Overnight Finance: Shutdown sprint begins

WELCOME TO THE SCRAMBLE: With just one week to go before the federal government runs out of funding and faces a potential shutdown, Congress is gearing up for a wild sprint to the finish, and nobody knows exactly how it will all play out.

The Senate will kick things off tomorrow, holding a vote on a two-month funding bill that would block dollars to Planned Parenthood, a major conservative demand. But that bill is expected to come up short in the chamber, setting the stage for, presumably, another vote in a few days on a “clean” continuing resolution without the Planned Parenthood language.

{mosads}While the Senate gets the ball rolling, House Republicans will be huddling on their side of the Capitol, in search of a strategy for keeping the lights on while keeping the entire GOP happy. And looming above all that is Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) bid to keep his leadership gig, as some conservatives are agitating for a coup, particularly if the GOP caves on the Planned Parenthood fight.

With days to spare and the questions still wide open, the machinations of a potential shutdown have begun in earnest. Welcome to Washington, Pope Francis.

WHITE HOUSE PREPS FOR SHUTDOWN: From The Hill’s Niall Stanage: The federal government has begun planning for the possibility of a shutdown, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday.

Earnest said it was “only prudent to begin such planning,” and lamented that this was “a process that we have unfortunately become all too familiar with.”

THIS IS OVERNIGHT FINANCE, I’m Pete Schroeder, filling in for the intrepid Kevin Cirilli. Tweet: @peteschroeder; email: pschroeder@digital-staging.thehill.com; and subscribe: http://digital-staging.thehill.com/signup/48.

GOP FRESHMEN: JUST SAY NO TO SHUTDOWN: Cristina Marcos, for The Hill: Eleven House GOP freshmen are urging fellow Republicans to pass a short-term spending bill to avoid a government shutdown next week. The lawmakers, which include members of the centrist Main Street Partnership, warned that another shutdown like the one that occurred in 2013 would harm the economy and cause delays in government programs like research at the National Institutes of Health and veterans’ disability claims.

“As freshman Members of the House Republican Conference, we were elected by our constituents to be principled, pragmatic leaders. They expect us to fulfill our responsibilities, avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, and live up to our commitment to work every day to help keep the American economy moving forward,” they wrote in a letter to the House GOP conference. http://bit.ly/1KBX0yt

HERITAGE ACTION: JUST SAY NO TO SPENDING BILL THAT FUNDS PLANNED PARENTHOOD: Rebecca Shabad with The Hill’s story: Heritage Action is urging lawmakers to oppose a government spending bill that continues funding for Planned Parenthood.

The conservative group said in a statement Wednesday that it would score lawmaker votes on the issue.

“Heritage Action will oppose a short-term continuing resolution (CR) that continues funding of Planned Parenthood and will include it as a key vote on our legislative scorecard,” the group said. http://bit.ly/1Pu97RM

SENATE DEMS LOOK TO PROTECT FEDERAL WORKER PAYCHECKS: From Jordain Carney, for The Hill: Senate Democrats are pushing legislation to retroactively pay federal workers who will be furloughed if there is a government shutdown.

Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), as well as Democratic Sens. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Ben Cardin (Md.), Tom Carper (Del.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Tim Kaine (Va.), Patrick Leahy (Vt.), Barbara Mikulski (Md.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) and Mark Warner (Va.), have introduced the proposal ahead of the end-of-the-month deadline to pass a spending bill.

According to the legislation, “each Federal employee furloughed as a result of a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations … at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates.”

Democrats are also using the Senate’s fast-track process — known as “Rule 14” — to let the legislation skip the committee process and go directly to the Senate floor where it could be brought up for a vote. No vote on the legislation has been scheduled. http://bit.ly/1iMFssJ

CBO: DEFUNDING PLANNED PARENTHOOD WILL COST GOVERNMENT $$: The Hill’s Peter Sullivan: Permanently defunding Planned Parenthood would end up increasing government spending by $130 million over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The CBO, Congress’s nonpartisan scorekeeper, projects that defunding Planned Parenthood would actually end up increasing government spending, because it would result in more unplanned births as women lost access to services such as contraception. Medicaid would have to pay for some of those births, and some of the children themselves would then end up qualifying for Medicaid and other government programs. http://bit.ly/1gOLjvZ

IN OTHER NEWS, THE POPE: Pope Francis gave Washington its first taste of his commentary Wednesday, and showed little sign of steering clear of some tricky political issues. Per The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes: Pope Francis waded into politics during brief remarks on Wednesday at the White House, touching on climate change, immigration and religious liberty before a packed South Lawn audience.

“I find it encouraging that you are proposing an initiative for reducing air pollution,” Francis told Obama during an ornate ceremony attended by thousands.

“Accepting the urgency, it seems clear to me also that climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation,” said Francis, speaking slowly in English.

The pontiff called the earth “our common home” and suggested that the Obama administration’s focus on climate change ahead of an international summit later this year came at a “critical moment of history.” http://bit.ly/1G3sJa5

Tomorrow, the pope will take his papal Fiat down Pennsylvania Avenue, where he will speak before a joint meeting of Congress. It’s anybody’s guess what Pope Francis will decide to discuss with lawmakers, but so far he has shown no interest in tiptoeing around matters. Pope Francis has tackled capitalism above all else and slammed Wall Street in previous teachings. And with abortion politics looming large over the shutdown fight, it’s a target rich environment if the pope wants to tackle some timely topics.

But elsewhere…

SENATORS WANT TO TACKLE CURRENCY WITH CHINA’S LEADER IN TOWN: Our own Vicki Needham has the details: A bipartisan pair of senators urged President Obama to put Beijing’s state-controlled economy and its failure to meet global trade obligations at the top of the agenda when President Xi Jinping arrives at the White House on Friday.

Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) warned that a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) between the United States and China will struggle to earn congressional support “unless the treaty acknowledges this past record of defiance and unless China adopts and maintains long-lasting, meaningful economic reforms. http://bit.ly/1Vb5sKc

And Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) got into the action as well, per Needham:

Republican Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio) on Wednesday once again called on the White House to address China’s currency fluctuations during a summit set for later this week.

President Obama and China’s President Xi Jinping are slated to meet on Friday at the White House where the leaders of the world’s two largest economies will discuss a vast number of prickly issues from cyber security to climate change, human rights and economic growth.

“Just last month, China yet again lowered the value of its currency, another harsh reminder that we cannot afford to sit idly by as China refuses to play by the rules,” Portman said in a statement.

“I urge President Obama to address this issue during President Xi’s visit and will continue my push to ensure foreign competitors are playing by the rules.” http://bit.ly/1G3t2Sf

IRS GETTING BETTER AT SNIFFING OUT FRAUD: Per The Hill’s Bernie Becker: The IRS has crafted a better system for picking out fraudulent tax returns but needs to improve security for that program, a federal watchdog said in a report released Tuesday.

The Department of Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration found that the new system, the Return Review Program (RRP), was able to detect returns potentially linked to identity theft not found by the previous Electronic Fraud Detection System. http://bit.ly/1gOLKpR

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