Happy Halloween and welcome back to On The Money, where there’s nothing spookier than a bad jobs report. 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–Senate passes first spending package as shutdown looms: The Senate passed its first fiscal 2020 spending package on Thursday, as lawmakers have weeks to prevent the second government shutdown of the year.
{mosads}Senators voted 84-9 on the approximately $332 billion spending package, which combined four domestic spending bills covering the Departments of Agriculture; the Interior; Commerce and Justice–along with science-related spending–and Transportation and Housing and Urban Development.
The snag: The vote means that the Senate has now only passed four of the 12 fiscal 2020 spending bills, nearly a month after the fiscal year started.
And Senate Democrats blocked a defense spending bill for the second time on Thursday, underscoring the hurdles ahead of next month’s government funding deadline.
- Congress now has until Nov. 21 to fund the government — either by passing each of the full-year bills or another continuing resolution (CR).
- Senators on both sides of the aisle are predicting that Congress will need to pass another CR next month given the snail’s pace of the 2020 funding bills.
What happens next: Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) told reporters earlier this month that without a “miracle” lawmakers would need another stopgap bill.
- “Unless a miracle happens around here with the House and the Senate, we will have to come forth with another CR,” Shelby told reporters, adding that a stopgap into February or March is “probably in the ballpark.”
- House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) confirmed that another stopgap measure through February or March would be necessary.
LEADING THE DAY
Trade deal talks manage to weather Trump impeachment storm: Efforts to advance a new North American trade deal have managed to remain insulated from the rancor of impeachment, with Democrats and Republicans alike signaling a desire to finalize an agreement quickly.
Almost a year after President Trump signed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), House Democrats are negotiating with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to address their concerns about several aspects of the deal, such as provisions focused on enforcement, labor, environment and pharmaceuticals.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has consistently said Democrats want to get to “yes” on the trade pact — a message she has repeated even after opening an impeachment inquiry into Trump over his dealings with Ukraine.
Lawmakers have shared her optimism, and The Hill’s Niv Elis tells us why here.
- Rep. Kevin Brady (Texas), the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, said he expects a breakthrough in the coming weeks. “Everything I hear is very positive, constructive,” he said. “It seems to me they continue to move toward common ground.”
- Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), one of the lead negotiators on the Democratic side, said the talks have steadily progressed. “The negotiations continue in force and in good faith,” she said. “If that were not the case, they would have been shut down long ago.”
Treasury moves to roll back Obama rules on offshore tax deals: The Treasury Department on Thursday took steps to ease regulations issued during former President Barack Obama’s administration that were aimed at curbing offshore tax deals.
Treasury issued final regulations eliminating documentation requirements that were part of the Obama-era rules. The department also announced its intention to propose regulations in the future that alter other portions of the offshore tax rules.
Senior Treasury officials said that the moves are designed to protect the U.S. tax base while reflecting the changes to the tax code made by President Trump’s tax-cut law and making the rules less burdensome for taxpayers.
The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda explains the new rules here.
White House talking new tax cuts: The Trump administration and congressional Republicans have begun working on a new tax package, The Washington Post reports.
In September, both Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow hinted that President Trump wanted to pass “tax cuts 2.0” before the 2020 election. Trump also said publicly in September that there would be income tax cuts for the middle-class next year.
“We’ll be looking at tax cuts 2.0, something that will be something we’ll consider next year,” Mnuchin told reporters at the time. “But right now, the economy is in very, very good shape.”
The narrative of a successful U.S. economy, though, has changed since Mnuchin made these comments.
More from The Hill’s Marty Johnson on the tax cut talks here.
GOOD TO KNOW
- President Trump on Thursday said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet at a new location to sign a partial trade agreement after plans to do so at a summit in Chile were scrapped.
- The Treasury Department and IRS on Thursday released a draft form that is designed to collect information about investments made under the “opportunity zone” provision in President Trump’s tax-cut law.
- Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is planning to take back the gavel of the influential Judiciary Committee if Republicans keep control of the Senate in the 2020 elections.