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—Pelosi rebuffs McConnell on infrastructure: Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday amplified her plans to link a bipartisan infrastructure agreement to a second package of Democratic economic priorities, rebuffing an appeal from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to decouple the two bills.
What happened: In a closed-door meeting with her caucus in the Capitol, Pelosi said her initial strategy — to withhold a House infrastructure vote until the Senate passes a larger partisan bill — remains unchanged, according to lawmakers in attendance.
“What the Speaker has said, and I totally agree with her, is that we’re not going to vote on one until the Senate sends us both,” Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, told reporters after the meeting. “That’s not changed.”
The background:
- The remarks came several days after President Biden had shaken the infrastructure debate first by vowing to veto the emerging bipartisan bill if it’s not accompanied by the Democrats’ larger social benefits package and then by backing off of that threat.
- McConnell seized on Biden’s reversal, urging Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to follow the president’s lead and commit to supporting the bipartisan infrastructure bill as a stand-alone measure.
Pelosi, however, is standing her ground, supporting the liberals in her caucus who are wary that enacting the smaller infrastructure bill would erode the momentum behind the larger partisan package. The Hill’s Mike Lillis explains here.
White House mounts full-court press on infrastructure deal: Meanwhile, the White House is mounting an all-out effort to sell the bipartisan infrastructure deal and walk a tightrope between both sides of the political divide.
Biden in a speech in Wisconsin on Tuesday touted the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal, describing the compromise as proof that American democracy can function and saying it would create good-paying blue-collar jobs if passed by Congress.
The administration is also deploying top officials to states and engaging lawmakers to help build support inside and outside Washington for the package.
- Top aides, including Biden adviser Steve Ricchetti, legislative affairs director Louisa Terrell and deputy legislative affairs director Shuwanza Goff were dispatched Tuesday to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to discuss the infrastructure framework.
- Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, one of a handful of Cabinet officials leading outreach efforts at the local level on infrastructure, spent Monday and Tuesday in New York state touring infrastructure projects in need of federal funding.
- And Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm spent the day in New York City to highlight new charging stations installed there.
The Hill’s Alex Gangitano, Brett Samuels and Morgan Chalfant recap it all here.
LEADING THE DAY
Supreme Court leaves CDC eviction moratorium intact: The Supreme Court on Tuesday left intact a nationwide pause on evictions put in place amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The 5-4 vote rejected an emergency request from a group of landlords that had asked the court to effectively end the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) eviction moratorium, which is set to run through July.
The Hill’s John Kruzel has more on this breaking story here.
Biden officials scramble to avert August eviction wave: With the eviction ban reaffirmed, Biden administration is rushing to avoid millions of evictions during a brutally hot summer with a push to get billions of dollars in rental assistance out to tenants and landlords.
“It really raises the stakes for all of us,” said Gene Sperling, the White House COVID-19 aid czar, on a Monday webinar hosted by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
The problem: First issued in September, the CDC’s unprecedented eviction ban was intended to curb COVID-19 infections by keeping struggling renters safe in their homes.
- Despite legal challenges from landlords and state judges who have largely ignored the order, housing advocates say the ban likely prevented millions of evictions and untold potential coronavirus infections.
- But while the U.S. has since made remarkable progress against COVID-19, roughly 3 million Americans say they’re still likely to face eviction within the next two months amid staggering heat waves, according to a Census Bureau survey conducted earlier in June.
“Initially, we were particularly concerned about an eviction cliff,” said David Dworkin, president and CEO of the National Housing Conference. “What we’re watching now is a slow-motion car crash, and we really need to engage very deliberately in avoiding it.” I break it down here.
IRS: Most of recent stimulus check money went to households making under $50K:
More than half of the money disbursed in the third round of stimulus payments has gone to households with income of under $50,000, the Treasury Department said Tuesday.
- About 52 percent of the funds sent out through June 3 went to households reporting adjusted gross income of under $50,000 on their 2019 or 2020 tax returns.
- An additional 10 percent of the stimulus payment amounts went to households that did not file tax returns in either of those two years, a group that typically has very low incomes, according to IRS data.
- About 85 percent of the payment amounts went to households reporting income of under $100,000 or nonfiler households, the IRS data showed.
The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda walks us through the data here.
ON TAP TOMORROW:
- A House Financial Services subcommittee holds a hearing on the retirement savings implications of the cryptocurrency boom at 10 a.m.
- A House Small Business subcommittee holds a hearing on filling the entrepreneurship gap at 10 a.m.
- A House Financial Services subcommittee holds a hearing on building resilience within the financial system to climate-related risks at 2 p.m.
Virtual Event Announcement–Telos: ESG and Corporate Responsibility in America
Wednesday, June 30 starting at 1:00 PM ET
How is ESG transforming business as usual? Join The Hill on Wednesday, June 30 for a national summit on ESG with CEOs, regulators, investment experts, activists, and others leading the way towards purpose-driven business models.Sessions will cover how we define ESG, the metrics we use to define success, and how can electric trucks help manufacturers achieve these goals, featuring Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Rep. French Hill, Rep. Yvette Clarke, UN Global Compact CEO Sanda Ojiambo, PwC Chairman Tim Ryan and more. RSVP today.
GOOD TO KNOW
- A pair of progressive think tanks on Tuesday launched a new initiative to push policymakers to permanently extend the child tax credit expansion that President Biden enacted earlier this year.
- Meet the chairmen legislating Biden’s economic agenda
- New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal (D) will become the next director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) enforcement division, the agency announced Tuesday.
- Sale prices for U.S. houses rose nearly 15 percent in the year leading into April, according to new results from a closely watched gauge of housing prices released Tuesday.
- The inspector general for the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced her resignation on Tuesday amid calls for her ouster more than two months after a government report said she created a toxic work environment and at times retaliated against colleagues.