Happy Friday and welcome back to Overnight Finance, where we haven’t jumped on to the scooter trend yet. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.
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.
THE BIG DEAL: House conservatives tanked a GOP farm bill on Friday over an intra-party feud over immigration, delivering a stunning blow to GOP leaders as they try to find a path forward on immigration.
In a 198-213 vote, GOP conservatives essentially joined Democrats in rejecting the measure, which would have introduced new requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP] that were a priority for Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).
The whip count remained in question in the hours leading up to the dramatic vote, despite GOP leaders expressing confidence just minutes beforehand that they would have enough support to pass the bill.
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Ryan and other GOP leaders frantically tried to flip members of the House Freedom Caucus from no to yes during the amendment vote series leading up to final passage.
In the end it, it wasn’t enough. House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said his members needed more of a commitment from leadership that a hardline immigration bill crafted by Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) would get a vote. The Hill’s Juliegrace Brufke tells us here what went wrong for GOP leadership.
What comes next: More Republican members are likely to sign a discharge petition intended to force votes on a series of immigration measures, including some likely to be backed by Democrats.
The discharge petition has badly divided Republicans and reminded the GOP of their stark differences on immigration.
The effort represents a revolt against GOP leaders, who generally control what comes to the floor. The petition would set up a “Queen of the Hill” process in which four immigration measures would be voted upon, with the one getting the most votes above 218 being sent to the Senate.
The votes could lead to House passage of legislation that would shelter “dreamers,” immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children. Helping these immigrants is important to Democrats and many of those backing the discharge petition, as the Obama-era program sheltering them from deportation is being unwound by President Trump.
GOP immigration reforms see new momentum: Republican immigration reformers said Friday’s defeat of the GOP farm bill will generate more support for the upstart effort to force House action on Dreamer legislation, according to The Hill’s Mike Lillis. Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), a leading voice in the effort to revive the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, said the conservatives who opposed the farm bill essentially reneged on an agreement with GOP leaders to lend their farm bill support in return for promised action next month on a conservative immigration proposal.
LEADING THE DAY
Pressure builds for NAFTA deal: With the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) up in the air, business groups, Democrats and Republicans are urging congressional leaders and the Trump administration to press on toward a deal.
Despite efforts to wrap up work on NAFTA, negotiators with the United States, Canada and Mexico have yet to reach a deal on updating the 24-year-old agreement with no end in sight.
The Trump administration had hoped to move quickly to update the three-nation pact but after nine months — talks first started in August — a final deal remains elusive between the longtime trading partners. The Hill’s Vicki Needham breaks it down here.
Lighthizer says NAFTA countries are ‘nowhere’ near reaching a deal: The nation’s top trade official issued a frank and dour statement on Thursday about the state of negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said that after nine months the United States, Mexico and Canada are still far from completing an update of the 24-year-old NAFTA deal with a slew of sticking points.
“The NAFTA countries are nowhere near close to a deal,” Lighthizer said in a statement.
“As I said last week, there are gaping differences on intellectual property, agricultural market access, de minimis levels, energy, labor, rules of origin, geographical indications and much more,” he said. Vicki tells us why here.
Tech struggles to stop spread of terrorist content: Facebook and Google’s platforms are still home to terrorist content despite their promises to crack down on extremists using their sites.
A new report by the Digital Citizens Alliance (DCA) details how graphic images of people being burned to death in cages and thrown off buildings still reside on Facebook, Instagram and Google Plus.
A gallery of screenshots from the social media platforms included in the report show an array of terror-related content, including violent images of beheadings and pro-ISIS propaganda.
Images and videos of similar pro-terror content reviewed by The Hill dating back to 2017 still remained on the site as of Friday. Some several months old posts had been removed from Facebook at some point in between Thursday and Friday. The Hill’s Ali Breland has more here.
ON TAP NEXT WEEK
Monday:
- House Rules Committee: Hearing on S. 2155, the Senate’s bipartisan bill to rollback provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act, 5 p.m.
Tuesday:
- U.S. Chamber of Commerce hosts its sixth annual supply chain summit, 8:30 a.m.
- House is expected to vote on the Senate’s bipartisan Dodd-Frank rollback
- Senate Banking Committee: Markup of a bill to expand the powers of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS), 10 a.m.
- House Financial Services Committee: Markup of five bills, including a bill to expand the powers of CFIUS, 10 a.m.
- Senate Appropriations Committee: Subcommittee hearing on fiscal 2019 funding for the Treasury Department with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner David Kautter, 10 a.m.
- House Oversight and Government Affairs: Hearing entitled “Ten Years of TARP: Examining the Hardest Hit Fund,” 10 a.m.
- Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee: Hearing entitled “The Health Care Workforce: Addressing Shortages and Improving Care,” 10 a.m.
- Heritage Foundation hosts event on the Federal Reserve’s new capital rules proposal, 10:30 a.m.
Wednesday:
- Heritage Foundation hosts an event on trade with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Sens. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), 7:30 a.m.
- Senate Banking Committee: Hearing entitled “Ten Years of Conservatorship: The Status of the Housing Finance System,” 10 a.m.
- House Financial Services Committee: Hearing entitled “Legislative Proposals to Help Fuel Capital and Growth on Main Street,” 10 a.m.
- House Ways and Means Committee: Hearing entitled “Tax Reform and Small Businesses: Growing Our Economy and Creating Jobs,” 10 a.m.
- House Education and the Workforce Committee: Hearing entitled “Regulatory Reform: Unleashing Economic Opportunity for Workers and Employers,” 10 a.m.
- Senate Budget Committee: Hearing on the Government Accountability Office’s annual report on opportunities to reduce fragmentation, overlap, and duplication in the federal government, 10:30 a.m.
- Federal Reserve releases minutes from the Federal Open Markets Committee’s May meeting, 2 p.m.
- House Foreign Affairs Committee: Hearing on Chinese investment and influence in Europe, 2 p.m.
- House Financial Services Committee: Hearing entitled “The Impact of Autonomous Vehicles on the Future of Insurance,” 2 p.m.
Thursday:
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau hosts its Spring 2018 meeting with its Community Bank Advisory Council, 9 a.m.
- Senate Banking Committee Hearing entitled “Cybersecurity: Risks to the Financial Services Industry and Its Preparedness,” 10 a.m.
Friday:
- Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell participates in a panel discussion in Sweden on financial stability and central bank transparency, 9:20 a.m.
NEXT WEEK’S NEWS, NOW
- The House is set to send sweeping changes to the Dodd-Frank Act to President Trump’s desk on Tuesday. The lower chamber is expected to approve a Senate-passed, Trump-endorsed bill that would exempt dozens of banks from stricter Federal Reserve oversight under Dodd-Frank, and release scores more from data reporting requirements and lending restrictions. Here’s our story from last week on how the deal came together. And you can read more about the bill the House will vote on here.
- The House Financial Services and Senate Banking committees on Tuesday will hold simultaneous markups of legislation to bolster the power of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS). The bill would expand CFIUS’s oversight to include investments where a foreign company would not necessarily gain control of a U.S. firm, including minority stake investments and transactions near military bases or U.S. government facilities. Here’s more on the issues the committee must address before the bills go to the House and Senate floors.
- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday filed a motion to end debate on the nomination of Jelena McWilliams to chair the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). That means McWilliams will likely be confirmed next week and officially join Trump’s team of financial regulators aiming to loosen key Dodd-Frank rules.
GOOD TO KNOW
- A bipartisan group of senators offered legislation this week to ensure that first responders’ injury-related compensation is tax exempt.
- U.S. companies could plow more of the money saved from sweeping tax cuts into business investment later this year, perhaps even surpassing a jump in first-quarter capital expenditure that was the highest in almost seven years, according to Reuters.
- Coinbase and another cryptocurrency firm talked to U.S. regulators about the possibility of obtaining banking licenses, a move that would allow the startups to broaden the types of products they offer, according to The Wall Street Journal.
- Chinese officials are pushing back on reports from a Trump administration official that the country has offered a trade package to slash the country’s trading deficit with the U.S. by $200 billion.
- President Trump has personally pushed U.S. Postmaster General Megan Brennan to double the rate the Postal Service charges Amazon.com and other firms to ship packages, according to the Washington Post.
ODDS AND ENDS
- Campbell’s Soup refutes Secretary Ross claim tariffs wouldn’t hurt them but he is pushing back anyway