On The Money — White House digs in on vaccine mandate

Happy Monday and welcome to On The Money, your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line. Subscribe here: digital-staging.thehill.com/newsletter-signup.

Today’s Big Deal: The Biden administration is calling on businesses to comply with its COVID-19 vaccine mandate despite a recent court ruling. We’ll also look at an upcoming spending scramble and a major departure at the Federal Reserve.

But first, welcome back to the U.S., everyone!

For The Hill, I’m Sylvan Lane. Write me at slane@digital-staging.thehill.com or @SylvanLane. You can reach my colleagues on the Finance team Naomi Jagoda at njagoda@digital-staging.thehill.com or @NJagoda and Aris Folley at afolley@digital-staging.thehill.com or @ArisFolley.

Let’s get to it.

White House: Move forward with mandate 

The White House on Monday urged businesses to move forward with implementing rules for coronavirus vaccines after a federal court stayed President Biden’s vaccine-or-test mandate for private companies.

“We think people should not wait,” White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday. “We say, do not wait to take actions that will keep your workplace safe. It is important and critical to do and waiting to get more people vaccinated will lead to more outbreaks and sickness.”

The background: A federal appeals court in New Orleans temporarily blocked the mandate, which was developed by the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), on Saturday. 

The three-judge panel on the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cited “grave statutory and constitutional issues” with Biden’s rule in issuing the stay on Saturday. All three judges on the panel were appointed by Republican presidents. 

The White House counters: “The administration clearly has the authority to protect workers, and actions announced by the president are designed to save lives and stop the spread of COVID-19,” Jean-Pierre said Monday, noting that the Justice Department would be defending the rule in court.

Morgan Chalfant has more here.

LEADING THE DAY

Spending bill faces Senate scramble

President Biden’s climate and social spending bill is facing the threat of changes in the Senate as Democrats navigate a slim majority and tricky budget rules. 

Even as House Democrats have spent days agonizing over trying to work out an agreement that could win over nearly all of their members — ultimately punting until at least mid-November as moderates push for an analysis of the bill — Senate Democrats are warning that it is likely to change once it reaches their chamber. 

The bill faces multi-pronged challenges in the Senate: An even narrower majority, complex rules governing what can be in the legislation and a chaotic process that lets Republicans try to peel off enough Democrats to inject changes into the legislation or sink it altogether. 

Jordain Carney has the latest here.

MUSICAL VICE CHAIRS

Fed Governor Quarles to step down, opening seat for Biden pick

Federal Reserve Governor Randal Quarles will resign from the central bank at the end of December, he announced Monday, clearing the way for an eventual nominee from President Biden.

Quarles, who had served as the Fed’s vice chair of supervision from 2017 through October, told Biden in a Monday letter that he would step down from the bank “during or around the last week of December.”

• While his term as the Fed’s regulatory chief ended last month, Quarles could have stayed at the Fed as a governor through 2032. The president can only fire members of the Fed board “for cause,” which courts have generally held to mean severe misconduct or incompetence.
• Quarles’s resignation gives Biden a smoother path to reshaping the Fed, with several other key positions either open or soon to be vacant as well.

I explain here.

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

Consumer inflation expectations reach new high: Fed survey

Consumers’ short-term inflation expectations reached a record high in October, according to survey results released Monday by the Federal Reserve of New York.

• Heads of households surveyed by the New York Fed expected consumer prices to rise by a median of 5.7 percent over the next year, according to the bank’s October Survey of Consumer Expectations. 
• The one-year inflation rate projected by consumers rose 0.4 percentage points since September and reached the highest level since the survey began in 2013.

The Fed and economists pay close attention to inflation expectations among consumers, particularly long-term expectations, when assessing the future of price increases. Steady increases in consumer inflation expectations could lead to what economists call a wage-price spiral: higher prices prompting workers to hold out for higher wages, which exacerbates the need to raise prices.

I’ve got more here.

Good to Know 

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida on Monday said that the primary force behind higher inflation is on track to fade despite price growth rising “much more” than the Fed’s long-run goal.

Here’s what else have our eye on:

• Elon Musk asked his Twitter followers on Saturday whether he should sell 10 percent of his stock in his company. Their answer was yes. 
• New York Mayor-elect Eric Adams (D) on Sunday said he is “going to look at” potentially encouraging businesses to accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment, after the incoming mayor made headlines last week when he said he will take his first three payments in elected office in bitcoin.

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading and check out The Hill’s Finance page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you Tuesday.