Week ahead: Take two on trade?

The trade fight might not be over yet despite an embarrassing defeat for President Obama on Friday.

Democrats bucked the president in a dramatic vote, blocking a trade assistance bill that was packaged with a measure giving Obama fast-track trade powers to finalize a 12-nation economic pact.

The vote against Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) killed the package, despite fast-track being approved in a separate vote.

{mosads}House Republican leaders say they will bring back up another vote on trade assistance by Tuesday, but it’s unclear if the result will any different.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) suggested Democrats would be more likely to back trade with changes if Republicans got on board with a long-term highway package.

Trade will again take center stage, but lawmakers face a host of other issues ahead.

The clock is also ticking on the Export-Import Bank. Lawmakers must reauthorize the controversial bank’s charter by its June 30 expiration date to keep it from closing its doors.

Many Ex-Im watchers expect its charter to expire temporarily, and some lawmakers believe a July highway bill could provide a vehicle to renew the bank.

In the Senate, a fight is brewing over spending bill, with Democrats vowing to block a defense appropriations measure.

The White House and Democrats object to Republicans keeping in place budget caps on domestic spending while using a Pentagon war fund to help the military circumvent those limits.

The Senate Appropriations Committee will continue marking up spending bills. On Tuesday, the Homeland Security subcommittee and the Interior, Environment subcommittee will take up their fiscal 2016 bills.

In the House, lawmakers will continue moving ahead with their own spending measures. On Wednesday, an Appropriations Committee subpanel will mark up the fiscal 2016 labor, health and education appropriations bill.

Also in the House, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will deliver an update on the Financial Stability Oversight Council before the full House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.

The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight has a hearing on Tuesday about “hacktivists.” The hearing follows a report that a hack on the Office of Personnel Management may have compromised the personal data of as many as 14 million federal employees.

The full House Oversight Committee that same day holds a hearing on the OPM hack.

Also on Tuesday, the panel’s subcommittee on capital markets is holding a hearing on new legislative proposals regarding business development companies.

On Wednesday, the House Ways and Means Committee holds a hearing on “Long-Term Financing of the Highway Trust Fund.”

 

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