An Export-Import Bank official goes on the record about the bank’s interpretation of the 2012 charter…
Keep reading…
TOMORROW STARTS TONIGHT: WHITE HOUSE TAKES ON HARRY REID. Vicki Needham and Jordan Fabian for the hometown paper: “The White House is criticizing Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid for his promise to block a vote on fast-track trade authority for President Obama. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the Senate should be able to move on fast-track quickly, taking issue with the Nevada senator’s call for the chamber to take up other issues first.”
{mosads}– WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY JOSH EARNEST: “We are setting the bar awfully low if the Senate cannot handle multiple issues at once. We should be able to expect the United States Senate to do more than one thing over the next month.” http://bit.ly/1GZ32MK
— KEEP COUNT WITH THE HILL. Who is voting against President Obama’s bipartisan trade deal? The Hill’s up-to-the-second whip list here: http://bit.ly/1FO3FqM
THIS IS OVERNIGHT FINANCE. Keep your chin up. It’s only Tuesday. I’ll be on Capital Insider tonight at 8pm on News Channel 8 if you’re in D.C. Tweet: @kevcirilli; email: kcirilli@digital-staging.thehill.com; and subscribe: http://digital-staging.thehill.com/signup/48. Back to work…
REPUBLICANS PASS THEIR BUDGET. From The Hill’s Rebecca Shabad: “Congressional Republicans scored a major legislative victory on Tuesday as the Senate adopted the first bicameral GOP budget agreement in a decade. The 51-48 vote capped weeks of work by Republican leaders in the House and Senate, who shepherded the blueprint through a messy debate over defense spending that at times threatened to split their conferences.
“The blueprint passed the House last week, and will not require a signature from President Obama. Passing a budget, which is always a heavy lift, was particularly important for Senate Republicans, who are seeking to demonstrate their ability to govern in a difficult 2016 election cycle where they are defending 24 seats. http://bit.ly/1dLuvEY
QUOTABLE, Tony Fratto, former Bush White House official turned business communications guru to Bloomberg: “It would be foolish for financial institutions to get into a head-to-head with Senator Warren. It’s exactly what she wants, and it’s a debate you can’t win.” http://bloom.bg/1E472W2
BAD DAY: ELIZABETH WARREN. The Washington Post’s fact-checker Glenn Kessler offered a blistering critique against Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) earlier today. Kessler said that Warren “misleadingly” cites inaccurate information in making her case of expanding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFBP). Kessler dubs Warren assertion a “false claim.” It gets worse for Warren: Kessler gave Warren four out of four Pinocchios for her citing a false statistic.
According to WaPo’s fact-checker methodology rating system, three Pinocchios means “significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions.” Warren got one worse than that. Her four Pinocchios means the argument is “whoppers,” according to the rubric. Kessler also reports that a “Warren spokeswoman declined to provide an on-the-record response.” Kessler’s report on Warren’s false claim: http://wapo.st/1DQeyCC WaPo’s fact-checking Pinocchio rubric: http://wapo.st/1oZK6yk
GOOD DAY: NYC SUBWAY-RIDERS. U2 (my all-time favorite band) played a free concert on an NYC subway platform. Video via Fox5 DC: http://bit.ly/1EeqKgW
JEB HENSARLING TAKES ON JANET YELLEN… BUT CAN HE WIN? Pete Schroeder has the latest on the brewing battle between Yellen and Congress: “House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.), who heads that panel’s oversight subcommittee, said Tuesday that the Fed has responded to their queries with ‘attempts to thwart congressional oversight.’
“Specifically, they said that the Fed had previously closed an internal probe into the leak without finding the culprit, and only reopened it following their questions, which in turn allowed the Fed to not answer their questions because ‘the investigation was suddenly ongoing.'”
— BACKSTORY, via Schroeder: “The matter at question is how the firm Medley Global Advisers was able to detail for clients Fed deliberations one day before the central bank released its own account in the fall of 2012. Fed deliberations can frequently move financial markets, and any advance knowledge of the institution’s thinking could provide a significant, and potentially illegal, trading advantage.” Read this — it’ll flare up in the coming months: http://bit.ly/1cjfcTM
Moving on…
DAYS UNTIL EX-IM SHUTS DOWN: 55. And the sticking-point over the next few weeks will be lawmakers’ interpretation of the bank’s 2012 reauthorization bill. Tea Party critics of the bank who argue that Ex-Im is little more than “corporate welfare” say that the 2012 charter instructs administration officials to wind down the bank. This matters because there are many Republican House members who are caught between the Tea Party and the business community, which supports the bank, arguing it sustains millions of American jobs. If those House GOPers don’t think that Ex-Im and other administration officials are seriously following through on Congressional mandates, then they have less impetus to support a reauthorization bill with needed reforms.
Let’s drink…
SHOT, via Ex-Im spokesman Matthew Bevens: “The charter approved by broad bipartisan Congressional majorities in 2012 does not explicitly instruct the Secretary of the Treasury to ‘wind down the Bank.'”
CHASER, via Marc Short, president of Tea Party group Freedom Partners: “We… believe that current law already provides for an orderly wind down of the Bank’s previously approved obligations upon the expiration of its charter.” Full story: http://bit.ly/1IL6xFL
CFPB RAISES RACIAL CONCERNS ABOUT CREDIT SCORES. Tim Devaney for The Hill: “A consumer watchdog group is concerned about data showing significant racial differences in consumers’ credit scores. Black and Hispanic consumers are nearly twice as likely as white people to have no credit history — which is used to assess how likely they are to repay a loan, according to a new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). These consumers, which the agency says are ‘credit invisible,’ are less likely to qualify for low-interest rates on mortgages, car loans, student loans and credit cards.” http://bit.ly/1E5NmRs
Back to the bank…
EX-IM CRITICS POUNCE ON LATEST FINANCING DEAL. Over the weekend, Ex-Im officials posted a public notice that the Ex-Im bank has received an application for final commitment for a long-term loan or financial guarantee in excess of $100 million from Cargolux Airlines. The bank’s critics are already pouncing on this, arguing that the Luxembourg-backed airline company is on tenuous financial footing. The company’s supporters refute this characterization.
Heritage Action spokesman Dan Holler tells OVERNIGHT: “Why are American taxpayers being asked to subsidize a foreign, state-owned airline with a business model some are questioning? Few lawmakers could defend this deal to their constituents.”
An Ex-Im official tells me that the transaction has NOT been approved by the Bank’s board of directors. It’s currently undergoing a public comment period. The official said that “Ex-Im Bank has financed aircraft exports to Cargolux — when needed to level the playing field for American exporters and supply chain companies — since 1993, Ex-Im Bank has had satisfactory repayment experiences during that time.” See the bank’s notice: http://1.usa.gov/1cjkDlA
SHELBY’S REG RELIEF BILL – – CAN HE GET DEMOCRATS? Victoria McGrande for WSJ: “Unhappiness with the Federal Reserve may be the ingredient needed to bring bipartisan support to a broader regulatory relief bill. Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana and Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren are working on legislation that would place further constraints on the Fed’s emergency lending powers and are discussing how to get their ideas included in a legislative package being readied by Senate Banking Chairman Richard Shelby (R, Ala.), according to Luke Bolar, a spokesman for Mr. Vitter.
“Staff for both senators have sat down to brainstorm and draft text they would like to see included in Mr. Shelby’s bill, and Mr. Vitter’s staff has been talking to Mr. Shelby’s team about the concepts,” Mr. Bolar said. “The pair is likely to introduce a standalone bill as soon as this week, he said. The senators are looking at legislation that would put ‘real constraints’ around the Fed’s emergency lending powers, including imposing minimum penalty rates that the Fed would have to charge banks that seek emergency support and a more limited definition of which firms could qualify for help.” http://on.wsj.com/1EORHev
ON-TAP FOR TOMORROW: YELLEN CHATS WITH LAGARDE, via MarketWatch: “June, September, or 2016? Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen will get a chance to weigh in on the debate about U.S. central bank policy — and notably, the timing of an interest-rate hike — and the economy in a conversation Wednesday with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde.” http://on.mktw.net/1Jpbm5G
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