Overnight Finance: House panel to take up bill toughening review of foreign deals | Trump acknowledges Cohen payment on disclosure form | Officials set for new round of China trade talks

Happy Wednesday and welcome back to Overnight Finance, more popular online than Elizabeth Warren addressing a crowd of progressives. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.

See something I missed? Let me know at slane@digital-release.thehill.com or tweet me @SylvanLane. And if you like your newsletter, you can subscribe to it here: http://bit.ly/1NxxW2N.

 

THE BIG DEAL: The House Financial Services Committee will mark up a bill next week that would boost the power of a secretive federal panel that analyzes foreign investments for national security risks, according to a source familiar with the plan.

The Financial Services panel will hold a hearing to amend a measure to give the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) broader authority to block and scrutinize foreign deals involving U.S. businesses.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-N.C.), has received bipartisan support and is expected to pass Congress. The White House endorsed the bill, which was also introduced in the Senate by Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

But the measure had been held up over concerns from some lawmakers and U.S. technology companies that the bill created unnecessary and redundant restrictions. I explain it all here.

 

ON TAP TOMORROW

• House Financial Services Committee: Hearing entitled “Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery Program – Stakeholder Perspectives,” 10 a.m.

• House Energy and Commerce Committee: Hearing entitled “Telecommunications Global Competitiveness and National Security,” 10 a.m.

• House Financial Services Committee: Hearing entitled “An Overview of Homelessness in America,” 2 p.m.

 

LEADING THE DAY

Trump officials set for new round of China trade talks: Trump administration officials are gearing up for a new round of trade talks with Chinese officials at the White House on Thursday after a U.S. trade delegation traveled to China earlier this month. 

The White House announced on Wednesday that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and additional senior officials would meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Thursday.

Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that White House trade adviser Peter Navarro was excluded from the talks.

However, a White House spokesperson told The Hill that Navarro would be attending the meeting, along with chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow and trade adviser Everett Eissenstat.

 

Trump acknowledges Cohen payment on disclosure form: President Trump officially acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that he paid his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, more than $100,000 in order to reimburse him for expenses he incurred during the 2016 election.

Trump’s financial disclosure, released Wednesday by the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), did not list the specific reason for the payment. 

But Cohen has said he paid adult-film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence about her allegations that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. 

The White House has said Trump denies the encounter took place. The Hill’s Jordan Fabian explains here.

 

Experts, lawmakers say NAFTA deal is within reach: Congressional lawmakers, government officials and trade experts say that an updated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) can be completed this year even though a slew of challenges remain.

Negotiators from the United States, Canada and Mexico have been working nearly non-stop to reach a deal but the longstanding trading partners have yet to finalize an updated pact after nine months talks.

Why the optimism then? “We have a very strong sense of common goal in terms of getting the deal completed as soon as possible,” said Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s deputy ambassador to the United States, at an event hosted by The Hill.

Vicki Needham breaks it down here.

 

US sanctions Hezbollah chief in joint action with Gulf allies: The U.S. and its Gulf allies on Wednesday announced sanctions against Islamist militant political party Hezbollah, citing its involvement with Iran. 

The U.S. sanctions, which were also implemented by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, targeted longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

“Today, the seven member nations of the Terrorist Financing and Targeting Center (TFTC) took significant actions to disrupt an Iranian-backed terrorist group by designating the senior leadership of Lebanese Hizballah,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.

“The TFTC again demonstrated its great value to international security by disrupting Iran and Hizballah’s destabilizing influence in the region. By targeting Hizballah’s Shura Council, our nations collectively rejected the false distinction between a so-called ‘Political Wing’ and Hizballah’s global terrorist plotting,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. 

The move comes one day after the Treasury Department slapped sanctions on the governor of Iran’s central bank, alleging that it funneled funds to Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group.

 

Lawmakers raise alarm over Trump’s move to help Chinese tech giant ZTE: Lawmakers from both parties raised concerns about President Trump’s effort to aid Chinese firm ZTE during a hearing on telecommunications and national security on Wednesday.

The hearing, organized by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, came days after Trump wrote on Twitter that he had directed federal officials to get ZTE “back into business, fast” after the phone manufacturer was forced to shut down major operations as a result of U.S. penalties. 

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said he was “concerned” by Trump’s comment, suggesting that it signaled a “loosening up” on ZTE following the penalties issued last month. The Commerce Department announced in April that it would bar American firms from selling products to ZTE, accusing the company of violating sanctions on Iran. ZTE is currently fighting the ban.

“I was very surprised and, frankly, concerned by the president’s comments recently, in fact, showing somehow a loosening up of that concern with ZTE,” Kinzinger said Wednesday. “I hope they were comments that were misinterpreted or at least there is some other thought given to that.” The Hill’s Morgan Chalfant breaks it down here. 

 

Reactions:

• “The Trump administration has made this problem significantly more difficult. With a tweet, the president muddled his own foreign policy.” — Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (R-N.J.)
• “It’s wrong and it’s dangerous for us.” — Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.)
• “I think this is part of a chess game.” — Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.).

 

MARKET CHECK: Stocks ticked higher Wednesday with all three major U.S. indexes ending the day with gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.25 percent, while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 gained 0.63 and 0.41 percent each.

 

FINANCE IN FOCUS

“Pretty much the death penalty…” Trump’s decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal could create a financial quagmire for U.S. allies who are suddenly at risk of being caught in economic sanctions.

Countries like the United Kingdom, France and Germany took advantage of the Obama-era nuclear deal to forge business ties with Iran, seizing the opportunity to sell to the country’s large and growing middle class. 

But once sanctions are reimposed, those companies could be at risk of losing access to the U.S. market and its financial system if they continue to do business with Iran.

“The aftershocks of President Trump’s announcement are really being felt around the world,” said Andrew Keller, a partner at Hogan Lovells who helped craft the Iran deal’s sanctions relief provisions as a deputy assistant secretary at the Obama State Department.

“If the U.S. is aggressive, then you could see some explosion on the diplomatic front.”

Any attempt to skirt Iran sanctions could spur the Trump administration to target European firms for exclusion from the U.S. financial system — a move with severe consequences.

“It’s pretty much the death penalty in that case for any business that wants to do business in the U.S. or even have the capacity to clear U.S. dollar transactions,” Keller said. The Hill’s Timothy Cama and I explain here.

 

Alcohol industry pushes lawmakers to uncork excise tax relief: The alcohol industry is pressing Congress to make permanent the excise tax relief it received under the Republican tax law.

The measure President Trump signed in December reduces excise tax burdens on distillers, brewers and vintners for two years, and industry groups are hoping that these changes can last for a longer period of time. Industry groups argue that the tax relief is particularly beneficial to smaller producers and is helping businesses make new investments and hire more workers.

It’s unclear what the vehicle would be for extending the cuts, but groups are optimistic that an extension will happen because there has been bipartisan support for lowering the excise tax burdens. The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda breaks it down here.

 

GOOD TO KNOW

• Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s top deputies are edging toward a clash that could shape the pace of interest-rate hikes in coming months, as well as how the Fed should prepare for and combat the next economic downturn, according to Reuters.
• Gambling firms are wagering that the U.S. sports-betting market is the next frontier after the Supreme Court lifted limits on the business. And several firms are vying to be first out of the gate with offerings, according to The Wall Street Journal.
• Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) on Wednesday released a study that found CEOs in the United States, on average, are paid 339 times more than their workers.
• Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) has been recommended to fill an open seat on the House Ways and Means Committee, joining the powerful panel with jurisdiction over tax, trade and health matters.
• The Communications Workers of America (CWA) has filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board against AT&T and Nexstar Media Group after the companies failed to provide information sought by the union about how the businesses planned to use their savings from the corporate tax cuts in the Republican tax law.
• Reps. John Carter (R-Texas) and Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) advanced in a reshuffle of House Appropriations subcommittee chairmanships, prompted by the retirement of Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), who had chaired the military construction and veterans affairs subcommittee.
• The top regulatory official for the Federal Reserve suggested Wednesday that regulators could consider lowering capital requirements for foreign banks operating in the U.S., according to Reuters.
• The Senate on Wednesday voted to reinstate the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) net neutrality rules, passing a bill that has little chance of advancing in the House but offers net neutrality supporters and Democrats a political rallying point for the midterm elections.

 

ODDS AND ENDS

• Whole Foods Market is rolling out deep discounts for Amazon Prime members, the company announced on Wednesday.
• If New York legalizes marijuana use, it could create a $3.1 billion market, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer told CNBC.