Armed with pretty much the identical script he brought to his much-watched appearance before the Senate Banking Committee, Dimon now takes his show to the House Financial Services Committee, but this time, there’s a twist.
Whereas Dimon had the exclusive attention of Senate lawmakers, on Tuesday he will follow an opening panel full of financial regulators, who will be probed on the trading loss.
{mosads}By most accounts, Dimon passed his Senate test with flying colors, as some grumbled that the senators took it too easy on him.
Generally speaking, the House is thought to be the feistier of the two bodies, so we will see if they take a tougher approach against the head of the nation’s largest bank, and a vocal critic of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law (that would be Frank as in Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank, who is the ranking member on the committee).
WHAT ELSE TO WATCH FOR
Stacking up: The House Appropriations Committee will take up two fiscal 2013 bills on Tuesday — Agriculture and Transportation and Housing. They will become the sixth and seventh spending bills set up for being reported out of committee and onto the floor this year.
The GOP is using the Agriculture title to block the Dodd-Frank financial reforms by providing less funding to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission than it says it needs to carry out the reforms. The transportation bill will contain placeholders for highway funding given the inability of Congress to resolve their differences over a multi-year transportation bill mired in a House-Senate conference.
This is the start of “hell week” for appropriators who will also be taking up the Financial Services title in full committee on Wednesday and Interior, Environment bill in subcommittee the same day. That bill is expected to once again be filled with anti-regulatory riders that will become the subject of fierce negotiation whenever final 2013 spending bills are worked out, likely after the new fiscal year begins in October.
Doing the farm bill scramble: We’re not talking eggs — we’re talking about reaching an agreement on limiting the 300 amendments filed to the farm bill, which continued to prove elusive Monday afternoon. Aides were scrambling to get a package of about 25 amendments onto the floor, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the GOP was still unable to agree to the proposed package. Reid threatened that if an agreement was not reached Monday, he would move to file cloture and cut off debate because the farm bill has been before the Senate for nearly three weeks.
Among those amendments that are on the final list “hotlined” for unanimous consent is one forcing the White House budget office to detail the effects of automatic spending cuts to be triggered in January under the terms of last summer’s debt-ceiling deal.
Sizing up the fiscal cliff: You might have heard, but there’s this business of a “fiscal cliff” approaching at the end of the year. A nasty cocktail of expiring tax rates and automatic spending cuts are set to take effect on Jan. 1, and do some hefty damage to the economy in the process.
Lawmakers are trying to figure out how to deal with that issue, and members of the Senate Finance Committee are bringing in a pair of experts to help. Pete Domenici, former Senate Budget Committee chairman, and Alice Rivlin, former budget director for the Clinton White House, who are now both experts at the Bipartisan Policy Center, will discuss the plan they authored for tackling short-term deficits and long-term debt.
China in focus: At Day Two of the Group of 20 summit, President Obama is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao, while Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner holds a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan. The United States and China always have plenty to talk about, from trade and intellectual property issues to how China can contribute to a better overall global economy.
Fed talks: The Federal Open Market Committee, the policy-making arm of the Federal Reserve, meets Tuesday for the first of two days of talks about the nation’s economic recovery and what, if anything, the central bank can do to spur faster growth.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Housing Starts-Building Permits: The Commerce Department releases its May report on the number of residential units under construction along with building permits, which allow work to start and are a forward-looking indicator where the sector is headed.
WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
— Obama: Greek election shows ‘positive’ prospects for reform
— Mexico invited to join US-backed Pacific free trade agreement talks
— Obama presses for improved trade ties with Russia
— US, South Africa step up trade relationship
— Boehner announces deal to expand District school voucher plan
— Homebuilder confidence hits highest point in five years
Catch us on Twitter: @VickoftheHill, @peteschroeder, @elwasson and @berniebecker3
Tips and feedback, vneedham@digital-staging.thehill.com