Dems want ObamaCare subsidies funded in exchange for $15B to military: An emerging government funding deal would see Democrats agreeing to $15 billion in additional military funding in exchange for the GOP agreeing to fund healthcare subsidies, according to two congressional officials briefed on the talks.
Facing a Friday deadline to pass a spending bill and avert a shutdown, Democrats are willing to go halfway to President Trump’s initial request of $30 billion in supplemental military funding.
In exchange, Democratic leaders want the GOP to agree to fund cost-sharing reduction subsidies. If the subsidies are halted, Democrats warn that millions of people will lose healthcare coverage as the ObamaCare exchanges collapse because of a funding shortfall. The Hill’s Alexander Bolton and Scott Wong report: http://bit.ly/2piuaD5.
Schumer: Funding deal possible if Trump drops border wall: Lawmakers appear to be moving past one obstacle to a spending bill after President Trump signaled late Monday that he might wait until fall for border wall funding. Dems welcomed the development.
{mosads}Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said a funding deal can be reached by Friday to avert a shutdown now that President Trump seems to be dropping his demand for border wall money to be included.
‘I want to say that it’s really good news that the president seems to be taking the wall off the table in the negotiations we’re having on an appropriations bill this week,’ Schumer said from the Senate floor Tuesday.
He added that ‘if the threat of the wall is removed … our negotiations can continue and we can hopefully resolve all of the outstanding issues by Friday.’ The Hill’s Jordain Carney explains: http://bit.ly/2piLTdl.
Trump, though, insists wall will be built: President Trump on Tuesday insisted he’s fully committed to building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border one day after saying he was open to waiting until the fall to get funding for the wall.
‘Don’t let the fake media tell you that I have changed my position on the WALL,’ Trump tweeted. ‘It will get built and help stop drugs, human trafficking etc.’
Trump on Monday signaled he is open to getting money for his proposed border wall in the fall, instead of in a spending bill this week.
The government will shut down Friday at midnight if Congress cannot agree on a spending bill. Democrats and some Republicans have voiced opposition to using the spending bill as a vehicle to begin funding the border wall.
If Trump punts his demand for border wall money now, it could lessen the chances of a government shutdown later this week.
The Hill’s Rebecca Savransky has more here: http://bit.ly/2q495g9
Happy Tuesday and welcome to Overnight Finance, where we’re wondering about the future of the border wall. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.
Tonight’s highlights include more details on Trump’s tax plan, the latest on the battle over miners’ pensions, and a green light for Trump’s trade representative.
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:
- White House to release tax reform plan
- Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin discusses the Trump administration’s tax reform efforts with The Hill’s editor-in-chief, Bob Cusack: http://bit.ly/2opggQl.
- House Financial Services Committee: Hearing on the CHOICE Act, 10 a.m. http://bit.ly/2oZcZEb. The bill is Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) rewrite of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.
- House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security: Hearing entitled ‘Stopping Disability Fraud: Risk, Prevention, and Detection,’ 10 a.m. http://bit.ly/2oy60Am.
- House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations: Hearing entitled: ‘Reviewing the Unintended Consequences of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act,’ 2 p.m. http://bit.ly/2pmIE5v.
Trump says he doesn’t fear trade war with Canada: President Trump on Tuesday downplayed concerns about a trade war with Canada after his administration slapped tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber.
‘No,’ the president told reporters when asked if he fears a trade war. ‘They have a tremendous surplus with the United States. Whenever they have a surplus, I have no fear.’
Trump’s decision to impose tariffs of as much as 24 percent on Canadian softwood imports ignited a long-simmering dispute between the two close trading partners.
Combined with his saber-rattling on the Canadian dairy market and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), it has sparked concerns about a broader trade conflict that could have significant effects on the U.S. economy.
Canada is the second-largest U.S. trading partner, with $575 billion in two-way goods exchanged in 2015. http://bit.ly/2piVWiM
Commerce secretary defends trade attacks on Canada: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross defended the administration’s decision to slap tariffs on Canadian lumber in a rare appearance at the White House’s daily press briefing Tuesday.
‘They are a close ally, they are an important ally, generally a good neighbor. That doesn’t mean they don’t have to play by the rules,’ Ross said.
‘Things like this I don’t regard as being a good neighbor, dumping lumber. And there’s a feeling in the dairy industry that they are a little bit abrupt in the action they took the week before.’
Ross also referenced Canada’s import tax on ultra-filtered milk, further ratcheting up trade rhetoric with the United States’ second biggest trade partner.
President Trump addressed that issue earlier Tuesday in a tweet, saying, ‘Canada has made business for our dairy farmers in Wisconsin and other border states very difficult. We will not stand for this. Watch!’
The Hill’s Ben Kamisar has more: http://bit.ly/2piCGSs.
Homebuilders denounce tariff on Canada’s softwood lumber: A lobbing group for homebuilders on Tuesday denounced the Trump administration’s move to slap tariffs on Canada’s softwood lumber industry in the long-running trade dispute.
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said the Commerce Department’s decision to levy a 20 percent countervailing duty on Canadian lumber imports will raise prices on housing and harm U.S. consumers.
‘NAHB is deeply disappointed in this short-sighted action by the U.S. Department of Commerce that will ultimately do nothing to resolve issues causing the U.S.-Canadian lumber trade dispute but will negatively harm American consumers and housing affordability,’ said NAHB Chairman Granger MacDonald, a homebuilder and developer from Kerrville, Texas. http://bit.ly/2piGmnb.
Trump tax plan likely to include infrastructure spending: report: The tax plan that President Trump is releasing tomorrow is likely to include infrastructure spending in an effort to attract Democrats, Politico reported Tuesday.
The proposal is also expected to include a tax benefit for childcare and is unlikely to feature the House Republicans’ border-adjustment proposal to tax imports and exempt exports, according to Politico, which cited sources familiar with the proposal.
Trump has previously floated linking tax reform and infrastructure, telling The New York Times recently that it might make sense to pair the two issues together because infrastructure is ‘so popular’ with members of Congress. Here’s more from The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda: http://bit.ly/2piC6E8.
McConnell signals Republican-only path on tax reform: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is signaling that Republicans will need to go it alone on tax reform ahead of a closed-door meeting with top Trump administration officials.
‘I think it’s pretty clear that we’re going to have to use a reconciliation vehicle, because today’s Democratic party is very different from the Democratic party in the ’80s. … Regretfully we don’t expect to have any Democratic involvement on [tax reform],’ he told reporters on Tuesday.
He added that congressional Democrats ‘seem to be preoccupied with wealth transfer. …That’s unrelated to having a tax, set of tax laws, that promote growth.’
Under reconciliation, Republicans would only need 51 votes to clear tax reform through the Senate, allowing them to bypass a potential Democratic filibuster. Republicans have a 52-seat majority: http://bit.ly/2piHWp7.
McConnell backs miners health fix in funding bill: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that he wants a permanent fix for miners healthcare included in a must-pass spending bill.
‘I’m in favor of a permanent fix on miners healthcare. It’s my hope that that will be included in the final package,’ McConnell told reporters.
Lawmakers are still negotiating a funding bill ahead of Friday’s deadline to avoid a government shutdown. McConnell sidestepped whether or not lawmakers will need to pass a one-week extension to give themselves more time to wrap up the talks.
A group of Rust Belt state lawmakers have been pushing to include an extension of healthcare for thousands of miners and their families in the funding bill. Jordain Carney fills us in: http://bit.ly/2piHWp7.
Congress nears deal on help for miners: More than 22,000 retired coal miners or their dependents are facing cuts to their healthcare benefits due to the broader decline of the coal industry.
Companies that have previously provided payments to retirees’ pension and healthcare plans have filed for bankruptcy in droves, forcing the federal government to step in and guarantee miners’ benefits.
The Hill’s Timothy Cama, Devin Henry and Jordain Carney have more on the emerging deal and why it’s taken lawmakers so long to get close to a permanent fix. http://bit.ly/2pg3qko
Cruz: Seize money from drug lords to fund border wall: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is introducing a bill to allow assets seized from drug lords, like Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, to fund President Trump’s proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Cruz’s bill, the Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order Act, also known as the ‘El Chapo Act,’ is a reference to the Mexican drug kingpin from the Sinaloa cartel.
The U.S. government is seeking $14 billion from the drug lord as part of its prosecution of Guzman: http://bit.ly/2piHabw.
Lighthizer unanimously approved by Senate panel: The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved Robert Lighthizer’s nomination to become the next U.S. trade representative as part of a bipartisan agreement to consider coal miners’ benefits legislation.
The panel voted 26-0 to send Lighthizer’s long-delayed nomination to the Senate floor while also approving a congressional waiver on the same vote, after months in a holding pattern.
‘I’m glad to see this matter is no longer standing in the way of the USTR nomination,’ Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said during the brief session.
Hatch and the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.) reached a deal on Monday that paved the way for expiring coal miners’ benefits legislation Democrats had insisted be moved along with the Lighthizer nomination. The Hill’s Vicki Needham reports: http://bit.ly/2piFXBj.
An expert in an era of tax reform: As Congress and the White House move toward the daunting task of tax reform, few people are more aware of the challenges they face than Mark Mazur.
In the Obama administration, Mazur served in the Treasury Department as assistant secretary for tax policy. This year, he became director of the Tax Policy Center (TPC), a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution.
Tax reform is ‘complicated technically, and it’s complicated politically,’ Mazur said in an interview at the TPC’s office in downtown Washington. Naomi Jagoda has more: http://bit.ly/2piswRV.
Dems introduce bill to create climate change bond program: Congressional Democrats have reintroduced a bill to create a climate change adaptation fund supported by a new federal bond program.
The bill, from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) would create a Commerce Department fund that states and cities could tap to finance projects preparing their areas for the impacts of climate change.
The fund would be supported by a new, annual $200 million federal bond program specifically designed to finance the adaptation work.
The bill is similar to legislation introduced in the Senate last session, when supporters compared the bond program to the war bonds sold by the government during the World Wars. The Hill’s Devin Henry explains: http://bit.ly/2piJsHU.
Write us with tips, suggestions and news: slane@digital-staging.thehill.com, vneedham@digital-staging.thehill.com, and njagoda@digital-staging.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @SylvanLane, @VickofTheHill and @NJagoda.