Overnight Finance: Funding bill expected tonight | Trump takes on Boeing | House rejects push for IRS impeachment vote | Dow hits new high

GOP prepares to release funding bill to avoid shutdown: Republican leaders in Congress are preparing to unveil a sweeping government funding bill on Tuesday that is expected to clear both chambers just in time to meet Friday’s deadline.

House and Senate GOP leaders agreed to stick to the $1.07 trillion spending levels set by President Obama and top Republicans last year, while offering a slight boost to defense spending, a GOP appropriations aide confirmed to The Hill.

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The bill would keep money flowing to the federal government through April 28, and is expected to receive broad support within the GOP. The government’s current funding expires at midnight on Friday. The Hill’s Sarah Ferris tells us what we know about the details: http://bit.ly/2heUMNJ.

 

But… Top Dem says Congress may need brief funding extension: Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) warned Tuesday that lawmakers may need to pass a brief funding extension to avoid a government shutdown Friday night.

Durbin told reporters that time is running short for Congress to pass a short-term funding bill, or continuing resolution (CR).

“Look at where we are: We’re not going to be able to take up a CR until at the earliest Thursday night,” Durbin said, asked if Democrats were prepared to block the continuing resolution over an unresolved fight about healthcare for miners.

He added that without an agreement to speed up consideration of the CR, lawmakers were looking at potentially blowing the shutdown deadline. The Hill’s Jordain Carney reports: http://bit.ly/2h38J2L.

 

House rejects GOP rep’s push for vote on impeaching IRS head: Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Tuesday moved to force a floor vote on a resolution to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, but the House rejected the push, voting to refer it to committee.

Jordan, the outgoing House Freedom Caucus chairman, gave notice on a privileged resolution to impeach Koskinen.

But the House voted overwhelmingly to refer it to the Judiciary Committee, 342-72. All the nay votes were Republicans.

The committee will not be required to take up the resolution. The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda tells us how it went down: http://bit.ly/2heIvgB.

 

Dow closes at 11th record high since election: The Dow Jones industrial index closed at another record high Tuesday, stretching a post-election rally into nearly a month of regular gains for U.S. stocks.

The Dow rose 35 points to settle at 19251.78, with investment firm Goldman Sachs posting the biggest gains.

It’s the 11th time the Dow closed at a record high since President-elect Donald Trump’s stunning election victory on Nov. 8, according to CNBC.

The Standard and Poor’s 500 index rose 0.3 percent, while the Nasdaq rose 0.45 percent: http://bit.ly/2heV47v.

 

Happy Tuesday and welcome to Overnight Finance, where we’re counting down the seconds until we have a spending bill. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line. 

Tonight’s highlights include a Democratic push for miner pensions, Trump’s deal with a Japanese bank, McConnell’s meetings with Steven Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross, and Samsung’s victory over Apple.

See something I missed? Let me know at slane@digital-staging.thehill.com or tweet me @SylvanLane. And if you like your newsletter, you can subscribe to it here: http://bit.ly/1NxxW2N.

 

On tap tomorrow

• House Financial Services Subcommittee on Monetary Policy: Hearing entitled “Unconventional Monetary Policy,” 10 a.m. http://bit.ly/2gvYZzQ.

 

Senate battles over miners deal: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday said help for coal miners will be included in a short-term government funding bill.

“I’ve spoken to the Speaker on a number of occasions about an issue facing coal miner retirees like those I represent in Kentucky and have insisted the CR include a provision to address that issue so these retirees don’t lose their healthcare benefits at the end of the year,” McConnell said.

McConnell added during a weekly press conference that he is pushing for an extension of miners’ healthcare benefits through the length of the continuing resolution.

The funding bill is expected to be released later Tuesday and has to be passed by Friday to prevent a government shutdown.

Democrats, however, quickly signaled that McConnell’s offer didn’t go far enough. Jordain Carney tells us why: http://bit.ly/2heOihZ.

 

Trump announces $50B investment by SoftBank: Japanese tech company SoftBank will invest $50 billion in the U.S. and introduce 50,000 new jobs in the country, President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday.

Trump announced the deal after meeting with SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son at Trump Tower in New York.

“Masa (SoftBank) of Japan has agreed to invest $50 billion in the U.S. toward businesses and 50,000 new jobs,” Trump tweeted. “Masa said he would never do this had we (Trump) not won the election!”

SoftBank was already planning a $100 billion tech investment fund. The Hill’s Ali Breland explains the deal: http://bit.ly/2gAebsJ.

 

Trump’s stock sell-off: President-elect Donald Trump sold all of his stock holdings in June, a spokesman said Tuesday, potentially easing some of the concerns about conflicts of interest in his White House.

The stock sale was revealed on a conference call on which Trump transition aide Jason Miller was asked about Trump’s holdings in Boeing. The president-elect criticized the company Tuesday morning, calling to scrap its contract to design a new Air Force One. 

“The president-elect sold all of his stock back in June,” Miller said. 
A transition official confirmed to The Hill that the comment referred to a sale of all stock, not solely shares in Boeing. 

The Washington Post first reported the news about Trump’s portfolio. The Hill’s Ben Kamisar breaks it down: http://bit.ly/2g7dRpi.

 

McConnell meets with Trump’s Treasury, Commerce picks: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) met Tuesday with Wilbur Ross, a billionaire investor and President-elect Donald Trump’s expected pick to lead the Department of Commerce, and Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s pick to lead the Treasury Department.

McConnell praised Ross’s business experience after their afternoon meeting, and said he expected a boom in American industry during his tenure.

“As our chief business advocate, I know Wilbur will use his decades of experience to put American jobs in the best position possible to flourish at home and American-made products in the best position to flourish abroad,” McConnell said in a statement.

“Turning our economy around will be a team effort and this is another great addition to the talented group of people the President-elect has assembled.” I’ve got more on Ross and Mnuchin here: http://bit.ly/2ghOa3y.

 

High court sides with prosecutors in insider trading case: The Supreme Court handed a win to federal prosecutors Tuesday, upholding the conviction of a California man who received insider trading information from a relative.

The justices unanimously ruled that trading on insider information is illegal even if information came from a relative who did not personally benefit from the tip they provided.

The court said a jury can infer that the tipper personally benefited from making a gift of confidential information to a trading relative.

The case centered on Bassam Salman, who traded on lucrative tips he received through his brother-in-law — an investment banker at Citigroup. 

In delivering the opinion, Justice Samuel Alito said the lower court had properly applied the high court’s ruling in Dirks v. SEC. The Hill’s Lydia Wheeler takes us there: http://bit.ly/2gAajIe.

 

Senate Dems: Don’t link Mattis nomination to funding fight: Senate Democrats are warning Republicans not to use a short-term government funding bill to help expedite retired Gen. James Mattis’s nomination as Defense secretary. 

Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat in the next Congress, said opposition to including in the continuing resolution (CR) a provision related to the waiver Mattis needs to serve is “very widespread.” 

“I wouldn’t say it’s universal, but I will tell you a strong majority of the Democrats think it’s a big mistake,” he said.

Durbin stopped short of saying Democrats would block a CR over the fight but noted that including the provision “certainly could” boost the chances for a government shutdown on Friday.

“It certainly could … if they insist on it,” he said. Jordain Carney has more: http://bit.ly/2heYoiV.

 

Dems introduce ‘Buy America’ amendment to water bill: A group of Democratic senators is planning to introduce a “Buy America” amendment to a waterways bill after House GOP leadership stripped the language from the final package.

Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) are leading the last-ditch effort to require that American iron and steel products be used in certain drinking water projects.

They want to reattach the provision to a nearly $12 billion Water Resource Development Act (WRDA), which authorizes dozens of infrastructure projects around the country and is on track to pass the House this week.

“I’m not giving up on this fight,” Baldwin said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “Why would we pass a bill that only benefits Russian and Chinese steel corporations when we could be providing certainty to American manufacturers of steel and iron?” The Hill’s Melanie Zanona explains: http://bit.ly/2h0ky9o.

 

CEOs optimistic on sales, hiring for the next six months: The nation’s top executives raised their expectations for sales and hiring but lowered their expectations for capital investment over the next six months, a new report showed Tuesday.

The Business Roundtable’s survey of CEOs showed that a composite of projections for sales, plans for capital spending and hiring rose by 4.6 points to 74.2 in the fourth quarter compared with from 69.6 in the July-September period.

“America’s business leaders are encouraged by President-elect [Donald] Trump’s pledge to boost economic growth,” said Doug Oberhelman, chairman and CEO of Caterpillar and chairman of BRT. The Hill’s Vicki Needham reports: http://bit.ly/2h0ij5Q.

 

Samsung triumphs over Apple at the Supreme Court: A unanimous Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out the almost $400 million in damages Samsung was ordered to pay Apple in a long-standing dispute over the patents of elements of smartphones.

The justices ruled that Samsung does not have to pay Apple patent damages based on the profits for the entire device, only the components at issue, and reversed and remanded the case back down to a lower court.

In delivering the court’s opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the text of the law resolves the case.

She said the term “article of manufacture,” that’s used in patent law encompasses both a product sold to a consumer and a component of that product. Lydia Wheeler breaks it down: http://bit.ly/2gPvEAj.

 

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