Week ahead: Senate kicks off trade debate

The Senate kicks off debate on fast-track legislation to boost President Obama’s powers to negotiate trade deals.

The bill on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) narrowly cleared a procedural hurdle in the upper chamber after a clash between the White House and progressives.

Obama wants TPA so he can eventually pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation economic agreement he says will help boost the U.S. economy, but progressives say is a bad deal for American workers.

{mosads}Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wants to pass the legislation before Memorial Day, hopefully with strong bipartisan support. But Democrats want more time to attach amendments.

Also in the Senate, Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) will have a markup on his financial regulations bill — the most aggressive overhaul since the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform law.

Progressives like Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), the top Democrat on the panel, have already attacked the legislation, saying it weakens Dodd-Frank.

Shelby could struggle to attract moderate Democrats to obtain the 60 votes needed to move to a floor vote.

At the markup, special interest will be given to centrist Democrats such as Sens. Mark Warner (Va.), Jon Tester (Mont.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (Ind.), whose support Shelby hopes to win.

Off Capitol Hill, Federal Reserve officials release their minutes from their recent meeting on Wednesday. Fed-watchers will once again look for clues on when the central bank’s policymakers will raise interest rates. Most expect the rate hike sometime in September.

Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen will deliver an economic speech in Providence, R.I., on Friday.

On the House side, the Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit will have a hearing about cybersecurity on Tuesday. Kenneth Bentsen Jr., president and CEO of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, and Rob Nichols, president and CEO of the Financial Services Forum, are slated to testify.

The Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance will have a hearing on the “future of housing in America,” with a special focus on rural housing also on Tuesday.

The Financial Services Committee’s Task Force to Investigate Terrorism Financing will have a hearing on terrorism, crime and corruption on Thursday. It will be the second official meeting of the task force.

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