On The Money: Waters says Deutsche Bank providing Trump’s records for probe | House fails to override Trump veto | Trump faces backlash for tapping Fed critic for bank

Happy Tuesday 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.

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THE BIG DEAL—Waters says Deutsche Bank providing Trump financial records for House probe: The chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee said Tuesday that Deutsche Bank has begun providing records of its dealings with President Trump for the panel’s probe into the president’s finances.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that Deutsche Bank has begun cooperating with an investigation into its extensive history with Trump, who borrowed millions of dollars from the bank over several decades.

{mosads}When asked Tuesday at the Capitol if Deutsche Bank had started to hand over records of its financial relationship with Trump, Waters replied, “Yes.”

The chairwoman also said she was satisfied with Deutsche Bank’s cooperation with the probe and that the Financial Services panel is looking into “everything” regarding Trump’s dealings with the bank. I’ll break down what it means here.

 

The background:

• Waters and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, are investigating the president’s finances through his ties to Deutsche Bank. The German bank was one of the few financial institutions willing to lend to Trump when others wouldn’t deal with him, often using unconventional methods.
• The dual probe is also focused on potential financial crimes committed by Deutsche Bank, which has paid billions of dollars in fines to settle allegations of money laundering, sanctions violations, market manipulation and risky sales practices.

 

The focus:

• The New York Times reported earlier this month that Trump allegedly inflated the value of his assets when applying for loans from Deutsche Bank and used loans from one division of the company to pay off debts to the other.
• The chairwoman in February called on Congress to step up scrutiny of Trump’s finances after Michael Cohen, the president’s former attorney, accused the president of misleading tax officials and insurers about the value of his assets.

 

Why it matters:

• Waters’s comments are the latest signal that House Democrats plan to investigate the president’s finances even though Attorney General William Barr said Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that neither Trump nor anyone involved in his presidential campaign conspired with Russia to sway the 2016 election in his favor.

 

ON TAP TOMORROW

• The House Financial Services Committee continues its markup of legislation related to cannabis banking and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, time to be determined.

• The House Ways and Means Committee holds a hearing entitled “The 2017 Tax Law and Who It Left Behind,” 10 a.m.

• The Senate Banking Committee holds the second of two hearings on a housing finance reform outline authored by Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho).

• The House Small Business Committee holds a hearing entitled “Unlocking Small Business Retirement Security,” 11:30 a.m.

 

LEADING THE DAY

House fails to override Trump veto on border wall: The House failed Tuesday to override the first veto of President Trump’s tenure, a vote led by Democrats seeking to uphold a measure unwinding the president’s national emergency declaration at the southern border. 

The chamber voted 248-181 to override the veto, falling short of the roughly 290 votes, or two-thirds majority, needed. Trump issued the veto earlier this month to push back on a rebuke from Congress over his bid to reallocate Pentagon funding to build a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The vast majority of Republicans in the lower chamber stood with Trump on Tuesday over the veto. But 14 GOP lawmakers opted to break party lines and rebuke the president’s emergency declaration for a second time.

 

Trump’s response:

Following the vote, Trump took to social media to praise GOP lawmakers for standing with the administration on the issue.

“Thank you to the House Republicans for sticking together and the BIG WIN today on the Border. Today’s vote simply reaffirms Congressional Democrats are the party of Open Borders, Drugs and Crime!” he tweeted. The Hill’s Juliegrace Brufke breaks down the vote here.

 

Trump faces backlash for tapping Fed critic for bank: President Trump is facing a backlash from across the political spectrum over his decision to nominate conservative economist Stephen Moore to the Federal Reserve Board.

Critics call Moore an unabashed partisan, whose close ties to Trump, controversial past economic claims and fierce criticism of the Fed’s current leaders disqualify him from serving on the central bank.

Moore himself is no stranger to controversy. He’s spent three decades advocating conservative economic policies as a researcher and commentator, regularly appearing on the airwaves to tout his views..

But the pushback against Moore was quick and fierce, including from some in Republican circles. I’ll explain why here. 

• Opponents of his nomination see it as an effort from Trump to shake up the independence of the Federal Reserve. They worry Moore would be a crucial ally for the president inside the Fed, one who could challenge the central bank’s consensus-oriented approach and reliance on predictive economic models.
• Moore, like Trump, has been fiercely critical of the Fed’s decision to raise interest rates eight times since 2017, arguing that the central bank should keep rates steady in the absence of rising inflation.
• Moore also said in December that the Fed’s leadership should be “fired for economic malpractice” if they raised rates the following day and argued that Chairman Jerome Powell could be canned for “wrecking our economy.”

 

Dems to Pentagon: No extra money if Trump uses defense funds to build wall: Democratic appropriators on Tuesday said they will not give the Pentagon money to cover any shortfalls that stem from President Trump using military funds to pay for a border wall.

“Let me be clear: I do not intend to use Mil-Con dollars to fund this wall,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, at a hearing on Trump’s 2020 budget request.

“And if the administration follows through and steals money from previously approved projects, the chairwoman’s mark will not provide funding for backfill. I am not joking,” she added. The Hill’s Niv Elis tells us why here.

 

GOOD TO KNOW

• Education Secretary Betsy DeVos defended proposed budget cuts to programs including the Special Olympics on Tuesday, saying “We had to make some difficult decisions.”
• President Trump reportedly meant to undo sanctions imposed by his own Treasury Department on two Chinese shipping companies with an abrupt tweet referring to North Korea, but officials convinced him to ease off as they sought to explain away the post.
• Bonuses for Wall Street employees dropped 17 percent in 2018 despite an 11 percent increase in profits for the securities industry, according to data released Tuesday by the New York State comptroller’s office.
• Many taxpayers in blue states were not able to take advantage of the state and local tax (SALT) deduction prior to the enactment of President Trump’s 2017 tax law, according to an analysis from Bloomberg published Tuesday.
• Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that she would increase the estate tax to pay for her proposal to give teachers a pay raise — becoming the latest 2020 presidential contender to call for raising the tax.
• House Democrats and Republicans found common ground Tuesday in denouncing President Trump’s proposed 12 percent cut to the National Science Foundation (NSF), the country’s leading backer of non-medical research.
• A bipartisan group of House members on Tuesday offered legislation to fix a portion of President Trump’s 2017 tax law that is hurting retailers and restaurants.
• Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said that she is reintroducing her legislation to curb stock buybacks on Wednesday, as Democrats have criticized companies’ share repurchases following the enactment of the GOP tax law.

 

ODDS AND ENDS

• Airport executives on Tuesday urged lawmakers to raise fees on air travelers to fund new infrastructure projects during a hearing before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
• The European Parliament on Tuesday approved a controversial copyright law that will force online platforms such as Google and Facebook to filter out content that could be considered a copyright infringement.