OVERNIGHT MONEY: Gauging the growth

The economy hit a rough patch in the beginning of the year, highlighted by anemic job growth. That, in turn, led major banks and the Federal Reserve to trim their expectations for the rest of the year, and economists to express an increasing amount of concern about a double-dip recession.

But if expectations hold firm, tomorrow’s figures should quell some of those worries, even though more robust growth is needed to spur a broader recovery and reduce the high unemployment rate.

{mosads}Of course, it’s also entirely possible that tomorrow’s numbers could come in well below expectations, which would could set off a fresh round of fretting about the fate of the U.S. and global economy.

WHAT ELSE TO WATCH FOR

Throwing out 3 percent: The House is expected to consider, and pass, a measure repealing a provision forcing most government agencies to withhold 3 percent of payments made to contractors.

The rule, enacted in 2006, is intended to combat tax evasion among the contractor population. But it’s never been implemented, and repeal has been embraced by officials on both sides of the aisle.

Democrats, as The Hill’s Floor Action blog reports, put up some resistance on Wednesday to the House GOP’s preferred method for paying for the repeal — a bill that would tighten Medicaid eligibility requirements. But as Republicans were only too happy to point out, the Obama administration on Tuesday announced that it was on board with both measures.

Also on Wednesday, the House approved a rule that would allow the 3 percent repeal measure and the Medicaid bill to head to the Senate as a single piece of legislation.

This old housing market: The housing market has been a bit of an albatross on the economy since the subprime mortgage crisis, but Rep. Scott Garrett is hoping to do something about it. 

On Wednesday morning, the New Jersey Republican is going to be unveiling a new proposal, which he says will (and we quote) “ensure robust private investment in the U.S. mortgage market without a government guarantee.”

Garrett chairs the House Financial Services subcommittee that oversees capital markets, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and has been a leading proponent of a revamped housing finance system run by the private sector without government input. However, Democrats and some of his fellow Republicans have aired concerns about such an approach, worried that private companies will not be able to support such a massive market.

HEARING ROUNDUP

A House Ways and Means subcommittee tackles Supplemental Security Income benefits for families with disabled children in the aftermath of reports that the program may be encouraging families to seek psychotropic medications. In all, the program helps 1.2 million children at a cost of $10 billion a year.

A House Financial Services subcommittee is set to look into proposed requirements that would force banks to disclose interest paid to nonresident aliens — an idea which is thoroughly unpopular, among other places, within the entire Florida House delegation.

And the House Small Business Committee examines fraud within small-business procurement programs.

THINK-TANK CIRCUIT

The Cato Institute is holding a discussion on the shortcomings of regulations when it comes to preventing systemic risk in the wake of the last financial crisis.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

The Labor Department is slated to release its weekly filings for jobless benefits.

The National Association of Realtors is scheduled to circulate its pending home sales index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings. 

LOOSE CHANGE

Across the pond: Top European officials, searching for a solution to the continent’s fiscal woes, jumped on board Wednesday with a plan to give new capital to banks, The New York Times reports.

Once is never enough: Standard & Poor’s might have sliced the U.S. credit rating in August, but that might not be the end of it. John Chambers, a managing director at the rater, told Bloomberg that S&P could downgrade America again if the supercommittee can’t craft a plan.

Stopgap city: Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), the House Appropriations chairman, said Wednesday that lawmakers will likely need at least one more short-term measure to fund the government, The Hill’s Russell Berman reports.

{mossecondads}The current spending agreement tides the government over until Nov. 18, and Rogers told reporters the next one would likely last until shortly before Christmas.

Get out the towels: House Democrats, who met with a top housing regulator on Wednesday, say the Obama administration is considering how to encourage principal paydowns of mortgage loans to help underwater homeowners prevent foreclosures, our Mike Lillis reports.

WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED:

On the Money’s Wednesday:

— Paul Ryan: The president loves class warfare

— Supercommittee Democrats love stimulus measures

— Ways and Means chairman rolls out foreign corporate tax proposal

— Steny Hoyer whips against appropriations riders

— Bipartisan housing panel prepares for yearlong journey

— Freddie Mac honcho to leave within a year

— Business Roundtable to supercommittee: Please don’t fail

— House Financial Services clears a quartet of bills

— Small business lending has a ways to go

— Mortgage applications rise

Tips, etc.: vneedham@digital-staging.thehill.com