Business

OVERNIGHT MONEY: Wintry forecast accelerates House agenda

by Vicki Needham - 03/05/13 11:00 PM ET

The House will vote on the $984 billion continuing resolution to fund the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments along with military construction projects.

Citing the sequester cuts, House Democrats generally oppose the bill, but leaders said they aren’t whipping their members against the measure, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) said on Tuesday.

{mosads}Meanwhile, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he has no intention of allowing a government shutdown.

Even the White House held off on a veto threat, but expressed deep concern about the measure.

On the other side of the Capitol, Senate Democrats opted against the idea of producing a massive omnibus bill, though they still vowed to produce their own measure on covering costs for the rest of the fiscal year.

Senate Democrats signaled they will generally accept the spending levels set by House GOP measure, keeping a shutdown out of view, for now.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said his party’s bill would seek to allow some shifting of money for agencies as part of the $85 billion sequester that went into effect on Friday.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) expressed optimism both parties can reach a deal.

Let it snow, let it snow.

WHAT ELSE TO WATCH FOR

Driving forward: A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Wednesday about how to bolster the auto industry, with representatives from major manufacturers including Joseph Hinrichs, president of the Americas for Ford; James Wehrman, senior vice president of Honda of America Manufacturing, and Chris Nielsen, president of the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas.

Job requirements: The House Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to hold a markup of a bill that would reinstate the original work requirements for welfare benefits critics say was loosened by an executive order by President Obama.

The bill would prohibit the Obama administration from granting waivers to the work requirements as part of the 1996 welfare reform legislation during the Clinton administration.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) has said that the work requirements are “essential to moving people from a government check to an actual paycheck and are supported by an overwhelming majority of the American people.”

Housing finance: A House Financial Services subcommittee will hold a hearing on the role of government-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the mortgage finance sector. Witnesses include academics and think tank experts.

Tackling budgets: Various subcommittees of the House Appropriations Committee are expected to continue budget hearings on Wednesday, with Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler; U.S. Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine; the National Science Foundation’s inspector general Allison Lerner; and Peggy Gustafson, inspector general of the Small Business Administration.

BREAKING NEWS

Record-breaker: The Dow Jones industrial average finished Tuesday at a record-high mark, closing at 14,253.77.

That beats the record set of 14,198, set on Oct. 9, 2007, before the financial crisis.

Meanwhile, Reps. Joseph Crowley (N.Y.), vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, and Nita Lowey (N.Y.), senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said there’s an increasingly disturbing trend in which Wall Street booms but job growth lags.

LOOSE CHANGE

Time of reckoning: The Senate Banking Committee chairman will hold a hearing next Tuesday to consider the nominations of Richard Cordray to head up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Mary Jo White to be a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

After a court decision found that several of President Obama’s recess appointments weren’t made during an actual Senate recess, Obama renominated Cordray and White.

Senate Republicans have said they won’t back Cordray unless Democrats and the White House agree to structural changes at the CFPB that would include a board overseeing policy instead of just one director. They also don’t like that the agency gets its funding from the Federal Reserve instead of Congress.

Still, the battle isn’t really over Cordray. He has gotten a fair amount of praise from financial groups such as banks and credit unions, who have said Cordray has been fair in his deliberations on housing rules set to go into effect next year. Though they still want some tweaks to those rules, they have largely been happy with the process.

Minimum wage: Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) introduced legislation on Tuesday calling for an increase in the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour from its current $7.25, providing for automatic annual increases linked to changes in the cost of living. Harkin and Miller’s bill also would gradually raise the minimum wage for tipped workers, which is currently $2.13 an hour, for the first time in more than 20 years, to 70 percent of the regular minimum wage.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

MBA Mortgage Index: The Mortgage Bankers Association releases its weekly report on mortgage application volume.

ADP National Employment Report: Automatic Data Processing (ADP) will release its February report for private-sector job growth, which is expected to show another increase.

Factory Orders: The Commerce Department is releasing its January data on factory orders, which consist of the earlier announced durable goods report plus non-durable goods orders.

Fed’s Beige Book: The Federal Reserve releases it March summary on current economic conditions ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee’s next meeting on March 19-20.

WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

— Senate Dems consider doing tax reform through budget reconciliation measure
— White House cancels tours due to sequester
— Obama reaching out to Republican lawmakers on budget agreement
— Service sector expands at fastest pace in a year
— House bill would make Obama cite taxpayer share of budget deficit
— Sen. Shelby: Time has come to tweak Dodd-Frank
— McKeon presses Armed Services members to support spending bill