On The Money — Presented by Wells Fargo — Grassley signs USMCA, sending it to Trump’s desk | Union membership falls to record low | Manufacturers want Trump tax provision made permanent | Warren presses banks on climate plans

by Niv Elis - 01/22/20 7:35 PM ET

Happy Wednesday and welcome back to On The Money. I’m Niv Elis, filling in for Sylvan Lane, who has the sniffles today (but I’m sure he’ll be back sooner if you tweet him a nice little note wishing him a speedy recovery and saying how much you miss him #FeelBetterSylvan). Here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.

See something I missed? Let me know at nelis@digital-staging.thehill.com or tweet me @NivElis. 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, njagoda@digital-staging.thehill.com and nelis@digital-staging.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @SylvanLane, @NJagoda and @NivElis.

THE BIG DEAL–Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the president pro tempore of the Senate, signed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on Wednesday, sending the trade legislation to President Trump for his signature.

Grassley, flanked by GOP senators from major agricultural states, praised Trump for his most significant trade achievement, which fulfills his campaign promise of updating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

“After three years, we’ve seen some success from his trade policies, and USMC is the best example of this right now,” Grassley said.

LEADING THE DAY: The percentage of salaried workers in labor unions fell 0.2 points in 2019 to a record low of 10.3 percent, almost half the 20.3 percent rate in 1983 and a 2-point drop from a decade earlier, according to data the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released Wednesday.

Membership in unions, a key base of support for Democrats, remained significantly higher in the public sector, where local unions for police, teachers and firefighters helped push rates up to 33.6 percent, compared with just 6.2 percent in the private sector.

With $1,095 in median weekly earnings, union workers out-earned nonunion workers’ median $892 salaries by 22.7 percent.

I’ve got more deets for you on that here.

Leader of manufacturers group wants Trump tax law provision to be made permanent: National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) President and CEO Jay Timmons on Wednesday urged policymakers to make permanent a deduction created by President Trump’s 2017 tax law that benefits owners of certain businesses.

“On taxes, we want to keep moving forward on tax reform,” Timmons said in Iowa in the NAM’s “State of Manufacturing” address. “The 20-percent deduction for small businesses, and I know there’s a lot of small-business owners that are watching today, please know we’re working to make that permanent. We want to expand it.”

The Republican tax law created a 20-percent deduction for income from noncorporate businesses known as “pass-throughs,” which pay taxes through the individual code on their owners’ tax returns. Many small businesses are pass-throughs, as are many real-estate companies and some banks. Like other tax changes for individuals in the 2017 law, the pass-through deduction is currently scheduled to expire at the end of 2025.

Naomi Jagoda has the details here.

Warren asks banks to turn over plans to prepare for climate change: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a series of letters to the nation’s largest banks Wednesday asking them to turn over their plans for how they will prepare for the financial risks of climate change.

“As climate change continues to affect our economy, it is critical to understand your bank’s adaptation and mitigation strategies,” Warren wrote.

Warren’s letter highlighted a number of financial risks that could stem from climate change, all part of a package of research from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Rebecca Beitsch has the lowdown here.

Microsoft ordered to turn over records for historic audit: Microsoft was ordered to turn over a trove of tax records last week amid a historic and long-running audit by the IRS that received new attention after an explosive ProPublica report on Wednesday.

A federal judge in Washington state declared that Microsoft must turn over key documents within the next seven days, a shot in the arm for an expansive IRS audit that has dragged on for more than 12 years. The IRS has been investigating whether Microsoft shifted intellectual property worth billions of dollars to Puerto Rico in violation of U.S. tax law.

Microsoft in a statement said the ruling is not about “Microsoft’s historical tax arrangements.

“The Judge acknowledged that this procedural ruling about document production is based on limited information, and is not a ruling on the validity of Microsoft’s historical tax arrangements,” the company said.

Emily Birnbaum has the full story here.

SPONSORED CONTENT – PRESENTED BY WELLS FARGO

Rising housing costs are forcing families to sacrifice basic needs like food, health care and education.

Wells Fargo is committing $1 billion in philanthropic giving over the next six years to reduce the cost burden of housing – and help American families move into safe, stable, and affordable homes.

GOOD TO KNOW