TOMORROW STARTS TONIGHT: HOW MANY DEMS WILL BUCK OBAMA ON DODD-FRANK? The House will vote tomorrow on legislation that delays the implementation of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law’s Volcker Rule from 2017 until 2019. The White House has threatened to veto the bill.
{mosads}– ELIZABETH WARREN: ‘MADDER THAN HOPS’ In an interview with Fortune published today: “I’m not sure what’s going to happen in the next Congress, but I will tell you that I’m madder than hops about repealing the section of Dodd-Frank that is designed to lower risks in exactly the area where the big banks got into trouble. And now we are putting taxpayers back on the hook. They want to take all the profits, but tag the taxpayer with the losses.”
More on her interview with Fortune in a second…
— WONK WORDS: VOLCKER BATTLE LINES, via me: The Volcker Rule, named after former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, limits how much banks can trade in collateralized loan obligations (CLOs). Many Democrats argue that CLOs are riskier than traditional trading. Centrist Democrats and Republicans, though, argue that CLOs help finance big and small businesses, freeing up capital during an impish economic recovery. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are against the bill and have been working to convince Democrats who supported the GOP measure in the last Congress to reverse course.
A GOP attempt to fast-track the bill was blocked last week on a 276-146 vote, falling short of the two-thirds needed to pass.
— A FINANCIAL SERVICES GURU tells Overnight: “The bellwether votes are [House No. 2 Democrat] Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.). They understand the issue and if they aren’t able to support this bill it becomes a lot harder for the rank and file. A flip flop from them would be very significant.”
— BUT HOYER AIDE TELLS OVERNIGHT: “He will vote against the bill because he’s opposed to the Volcker rule change and has concerns that this legislation was brought to the Floor without any hearings or committee markup.”
THIS IS OVERNIGHT FINANCE. It’s only Tuesday, go faster. Tweet: @kevcirilli; email: kcirilli@digital-staging.thehill.com; and subscribe: http://digital-staging.thehill.com/signup/48.
JULIAN CASTRO FUELS VEEP SPECULATION. Following a policy speech on housing reform, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro added to speculation that he’s jockeying for the No. 2 spot in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Castro’s remarks from the National Press Club earlier today, via me for the hometown paper:
— ON HIS POLITICAL FUTURE: “We’ll see what happens,” Castro said when asked point blank if he’d be interested in becoming a vice presidential pick or running for Texas governor. “There’s no grand plan,” he said, adding that he’s “very mindful that when January 20 comes around there are two years left” in President Obama’s second term in office. “I’m trying to do a great job at HUD… I believe that anything that you do in life … the No. 1 way of being satisfied personally and also to have a great future — whatever that future is — is to just do a fantastic job with what’s in front of you because if you don’t do that, you can kiss any of that future goodbye. So I’m just trying to do a good job with what’s in front of me.”
— ON HILLARY CLINTON: “Secretary of State Clinton is obviously an extremely talented person who has made fantastic contributions to our national progress over the last couple of decades,” he said. “I’m staying out of those politics in this role but I know that she did a great job as secretary of State and I’m confident that if she is elected president, she would do enormous good for the country as well.”
— ON HOUSING FINANCE: Some conservatives have raised concerns that such a policy will lead to faulty home loans being given to Americans who can’t afford houses, similar to the issue that led to the 2008 financial crisis. “If anything, the underwriting standards are too strict… We went from one extreme where it was too easy to get a home loan [before the crisis] to another extreme where it was too difficult. … We want to find a strong middle ground.”
— ON CONGRESS: Castro said he was unsure whether the new Congress and the administration would be able to take up housing finance reform. He stressed his view that housing finance reform would likely include the end of taxpayer-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “Folks along the ideological spectrum and partisan spectrum believe that there is a better way out there [than Fannie and Freddie… We can have] a government backstop but do it in a manner that doesn’t leave taxpayers on the hook the way they were a few years ago.” Story:http://bit.ly/1BkVsY9
PAUL RYAN: LET’S TALK TRADE. Vicki Needham reports for The Hill: “House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (Wis.) said Tuesday that the first issue he wants to tackle is passing trade promotion authority (TPA)… He said TPA would give Congress the power to set negotiation objectives for trade agreements, get the best deal from global partners and hold the Obama administration accountable on the trade front.” Story: http://bit.ly/1BXZHca
DEMS BRING BACK BUFFET RULE — HAS NO CHANCE OF PASSING. Bernie Becker for The Hill: “Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) rolled out new tax measures aimed at the wealthy and corporations on Tuesday, as Democrats ramp up their efforts to shape the debate over tax reform. The bills from Whitehouse and Democrats aren’t new — all three, including so-called “Buffett Rule” legislation, were introduced in the last Congress — and stand little chance of progressing on a GOP-controlled Capitol Hill.” http://bit.ly/1IHKk7W
OBAMA SIGNS TRIA, via me: President Obama on Monday signed a six-year reauthorization of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) that included a provision progressives opposed to change the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law…
— CRACKS OPEN DODD-FRANK?: The bill included an unrelated provision opposed by progressives, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). The measure scraps a number of Dodd-Frank financial regulations on several financial industry sectors, dubbed “end users” in Washington speak. Republicans and centrist Democrats argued that the restrictions were only intended for big banks.
Prior to signing the legislation, White House officials and many Democrats criticized Republicans for including the “end users” provision in the bill, though Obama stopped short of issuing a veto threat. Story: http://bit.ly/1AbjuAP
RT Jason Rosenstock, @joejava210, partner at Thorn Run Partners in Washington D.C. specializing in financial services: “Might just be a slit – real test is still to come.”
IRS SHUTDOWN? From our Bernie Becker: “Facing a new round of budget cuts, the IRS plans to delay information technology improvements, audit fewer taxpayers and send out refunds more slowly, the agency’s chief said Tuesday. Even so, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen added that the agency still might have to shut down for two days this year. Those changes are all on the table because of a $346 million cut in the IRS budget that will hurt both taxpayers and the tax system, Koskinen told staffers in an agency-wide email…
“‘This year we are looking at a situation where realistically we have no choice but to do less with less,’ Koskinen told staffers, after warning for weeks that the budget cuts would force the agency’s hand.” http://bit.ly/1u2G9Tg
WARREN: I’M STILL NOT RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT, via Peter Sullivan for The Hill: “Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) responded simply “No” when asked in an interview if she is going to run for president — in the future tense — taking her denials a step further.
“Warren has long denied that she is running for president, but the liberal groups urging her to run have focused on her present tense phrasing of ‘I am not running for president,’ as possibly leaving the door open to deciding to run later on. But in an interview in Fortune published Tuesday, Warren is asked, ‘Are you going to run for president?’ Her response is one word: ‘No.'” Sullivan on the 2016 angle: http://bit.ly/14Sg3qF
MORE WEISS FALLOUT — One day after investment banker Antonio Weiss bowed out of becoming the No. 3 at the Treasury Department, progressives were still celebrating. Overnight caught up with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) about the news.
— SANDERS SAYS: “There would have been a number of us on the floor of the Senate opposing him. My own view is that I don’t think we need more people from Wall Street in the administration. We need people who are prepared to stand up to Wall Street… People have seen lately the incredible power of Wall Street and they want the Congress to stand up to Wall Street and not see people who come from Wall Street in the administration.”
METLIFE TO FEDS: WE AREN’T THAT IMPORTANT. Mary Williams Walsh for The New York Times‘ DealBook: “MetLife on Tuesday filed suit to fight its designation as ‘systemically important,’ becoming the first financial company to go to court since the government started singling out too-big-to-fail institutions for special oversight.
“The insurer petitioned the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday afternoon to order the designation rescinded. Under a provision of the Dodd-Frank financial oversight law, a panel of regulators under the auspices of the Treasury Department has been identifying banks and other companies that meet the criteria of a ‘systemically important financial institution,’ or SIFI.” Read this, it’s important: http://nyti.ms/1z7KFkI.
WORLD BANK: OVERSEAS ECONOMY COULD DELAY RATE INCREASE. Ian Talley for The Wall Street Journal: “A darker growth outlook overseas is likely to push back the U.S. Federal Reserve’s first rate increase in eight years, the World Bank said Tuesday. ‘I expect it will prompt the Fed to hold off on an interest rate rise for a little longer than what observers had originally anticipated,’ said Kaushik Basu, the bank’s chief economist. The development bank downgraded global growth expectations amid ongoing eurozone troubles and a sharper emerging market slowdown.”http://on.wsj.com/1FRVuLi
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