Overnight Finance: Congress struggles to strike funding deal as deadline nears | Immigration, ObamaCare, Gateway project divide lawmakers | FTC to probe Facebook | Mnuchin plays hardball on tariffs

by Sylvan Lane - 03/20/18 6:02 PM ET

Happy Tuesday and welcome back to Overnight Finance, where the forecasts for Wednesday’s snowstorm and Friday’s government funding deadline are both getting bleeker. 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@digital-staging.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: Congress is struggling to finalize a mammoth funding bill as they barrel toward a Friday deadline to prevent another government shutdown.

Lawmakers say that while they hope to release a funding bill Tuesday night, they are still wrestling with a slate of controversial hurdles — including border funding and immigration enforcement measures, as well as key ObamaCare payments that are bogged down in an abortion fight.

The slog, according to members of leadership, could force Congress to pass a stopgap measure in order to give lawmakers time to finalize the bill and navigate around the Senate’s procedural hurdles. The Hill’s Jordain Carney tells us what’s holding up the negotiations.

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House Democratic leaders said Tuesday that more than a dozen “poison pill” provisions are holding up the deal. That’s led some top lawmakers to float the idea that another stopgap bill may be needed to keep Washington running.

The biggest obstacles

DACA: Several Democratic lawmakers said they’re still pushing to salvage the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program as part of the omnibus package. President Trump has sought to eliminate the program, though a federal judge has temporarily blocked that effort. The lack of certainty surrounding the program’s future has led many Democrats to insist that “Dreamer” protections be included in the spending bill.

The wall: Leaders cite Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding as an issue, including President Trump’s proposed border wall and immigration enforcement.

Bridges and tunnels: Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the White House have locked horns over including funding for the Gateway project, an infrastructure proposal that’s a priority for the New York and New Jersey delegations.
ObamaCare stabilization: Senators said on Tuesday that they are still trying to get funding for ObamaCare’s cost-sharing reduction payments in the omnibus.

Snow: Washington is supposed to get hit with a winter storm Wednesday, with current projections giving the District eight to 12 inches of snow. Congress could cancel votes on Wednesday if D.C., is paralyzed by the weather.

Conservatives feel left out in the cold: Republican hard-liners in the House left a conference meeting Tuesday morning worried, once again, that the massive spending package being negotiated by GOP leaders will fail to deliver conservative wins.

Top conservatives argued leadership isn’t negotiating hard enough to ensure they aren’t steamrolled by the Senate.

“It sounds like the Democrats in the Senate are getting all kinds of wins in terms of riders,” Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, told reporters.

“I don’t know, I mean I haven’t read it. So all you’re looking at is, when most of the wins are the fact that we’re funding our military, that doesn’t speak well for $63 billion in nondefense discretionary plus-ups as wins.”

The Hill’s Juliegrace Brufke, who just joined our congressional team to cover the House, tells us more here. Make sure you follow her on Twitter as the funding deadline nears closer.

Reactions

“There may have to be some measures taken to keep the lights on, but we’ll get it done.” — Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the Senate majority whip.

“We really have been very flexible, in a lot of the areas, and they just won’t budge.” — Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) on border security funding.

“At the end the Senate wants their way, and we get rolled, and so the fiscal discipline goes out the door.” — Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.)

What comes next: Congressional leaders will release the funding bill as soon as they can, but we’re not sure when that will be. It could take two or three days for both chambers to clear the bill after it’s unveiled, which means we could enter into a mini-shutdown if lawmakers don’t pass a stopgap measure.

On tap tomorrow (pending cancellations for snow)

House Ways and Means Committee: Hearing on U.S. trade policy with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, 10 a.m

Senate Budget Committee: Hearing on the 2018 economic report of the president with Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Keith Hassett, 10 a.m.
Federal Reserve announces monetary policy decision, 2 p.m.

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