On The Money: Senate Dems to introduce resolution blocking Trump emergency declaration | Banks made $28 billion in extra profits thanks to GOP tax law | IRS analyst charged with leaking Cohen’s financial records

Happy Thursday and welcome back to On The Money. 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.

Write us with tips, suggestions and news: slane@digital-staging.thehill.com, vneedham@digital-staging.thehill.com, njagoda@digital-staging.thehill.com and nelis@digital-staging.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @SylvanLane, @VickofTheHill, @NJagoda and @NivElis.

THE BIG DEAL– Senate Dems to introduce resolution blocking Trump’s emergency declaration: Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Thursday that Democrats will introduce a resolution to block President Trump’s emergency declaration to construct the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

{mosads}”Identical companion legislation to the House resolution will soon be introduced in the Senate,” Schumer said in a statement.

House Democrats, with the backing of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), are expected to file their resolution as soon as Friday.

The Senate, which convened for roughly a minute earlier Thursday, is out of town until Monday afternoon, making that day the earliest Democrats could file a resolution in the upper chamber.

The background:

• Trump announced last Friday that he would declare a national emergency to construct the wall after Congress included only $1.375 billion for physical barriers along the border in a government funding bill — well below the $5.7 billion the president requested.
• A resolution blocking Trump’s move only needs a simple majority in both chambers to get to the president’s desk, where White House officials have suggested he would use his first veto since taking over the Oval Office.

What comes next:

• Democrats and a handful of Republicans argue that Trump is overstepping the separation of powers by using an emergency declaration to appropriate money, a job given exclusively to Congress, after failing to get lawmakers to give him amount of wall funding that he wants.
• If all 47 Democrats vote for the resolution to block Trump’s emergency declaration, they will still need to flip four Republican senators.
• Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is the first Republican senator to say she would support a “clean” resolution of disapproval.
• Over in the House, GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher (Wis.) said he doesn’t believe Trump’s declaration of emergency is the right course of action during an interview with Milwaukee’s NBC affiliate on Thursday.

LEADING THE DAY

US banks made $28 billion in extra profits thanks to GOP tax bill: Federally insured U.S. banks made more than $28 billion in additional profits in 2018 thanks to the Republican tax-cut law enacted at the start of the year, according to data released Thursday.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) revealed that the nation’s 5,406 federally insured banks reeled in $236.7 billion in profits last year, according to the agency’s quarterly banking profile. I break down the numbers here.

• Yearly profits increased $72.4 billion from 2017, and the rise includes $28.8 billion more than banks would have kept under the previous tax regime. Bank profits in the fourth quarter of 2018 rose to $59 billion, an $8.1 billion increase from the same period in 2017.
• The Republican tax-cut bill reduced the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. The bill’s supporters said the corporate tax cut would fuel the U.S. economy, while Democrats panned it as a handout to wealthy elites.
• U.S. banks would have made an estimated $207.9 billion in profits in 2018 and $50.3 billion in the fourth quarter without the benefits of a corporate tax cut.

IRS analyst charged with leaking Cohen’s financial records to Avenatti: The Justice Department on Thursday announced charges against an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) analyst for illegally disclosing financial reports related to President Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen.

John C. Fry, 54, was charged with unlawful disclosure of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California said in a news release.

Fry allegedly provided the documents to Michael Avenatti, the attorney representing Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against Trump and Cohen.

Prosecutors said Fry, who worked in San Francisco as an investigative analyst for the IRS’s law enforcement arm, logged on to his work computer in May 2018 and conducted searches for records related to Cohen. According to the complaint, Fry downloaded five SARs, including one related to a bank account for Essential Consultants LLC. Fry then allegedly contacted Avenatti with the information.

GOOD TO KNOW

• Former Democratic Rep. Joseph Crowley (N.Y.) is joining a coalition to help secure passage of President Trump’s new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada.
• European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Thursday he is not hopeful that Britain will leave the European Union (EU) with a deal in place for the transition.
• Reuters reports that the U.S. and China have sketched the broad outlines of a trade deal that would address trade practices the U.S. deems as unfair, such as accusations that Beijing forces U.S. companies to give up trade secrets in order to do business in China.
• Google on Thursday said that it will soon allow its employees to sue the company over discrimination and harassment claims, a policy change that comes after a campaign by its workers.

ODDS AND ENDS

• A park ranger in New York City who was furloughed for weeks during the partial government shutdown won a lottery jackpot worth nearly $30 million.