On The Money: Five ways an obscure Senate ruling could change Washington | IMF sees record global economic growth in 2021

Happy Tuesday and welcome back to On The Money, where we hope Aaron Rodgers hosts “Jeopardy!” forever. 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—Five ways an obscure Senate ruling could change Washington: The Senate parliamentarian issued a ruling Monday night paving the way for the unlimited use of a budget procedure to bypass the legislative filibuster.

The ruling by Elizabeth MacDonough – who is largely unknown to the public – could change how Washington operates, and give Democrats significant leeway to advance their agenda over the next two years. Here are five reasons why the decision is a game changer.

• Biden can potentially get a lot more done without GOP support: The new ruling means that Biden can theoretically go back as many times as he wants to amend the budget resolution in order to pass more policy, regardless of the fiscal year and what’s happening with the budget.

• It further erodes the power of the filibuster: While the budget workaround is ideal for changing taxes, benefits, some health care parameters and even large-scale investments, it hits a wall on issues that are not directly linked to deficits.

• It gives even more power to Joe Manchin: Congrats, West Virginia!

• It decouples the legislative schedule from budgeting: Because the filibuster workaround is embedded in the budget resolution, the calendar for passing legislation was somewhat tied up with the regular appropriations process for funding the government.

• It takes pressure off the debt ceiling: Congress can raise the debt limit through a budget reconciliation bill even without bipartisan support.

The Hill’s Niv Elis explains it all here.

LEADING THE DAY

Consumer bureau proposes ban on most home foreclosures until 2022: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is proposing what would effectively be a ban on most residential foreclosures through the end of 2021.

The CFPB on Monday proposed a rule that would bar mortgage lenders and servicers from starting foreclosure proceedings on mortgages for primary residences until the homeowner has been delinquent for 120 days.

• Since March 2020, millions of U.S. households have entered mortgage forbearance — a temporary pause on payments due — through federal guarantee agreements with their mortgage servicers. 
• The federal government has extended a range of forbearance protections through the end of September, meaning millions of households set to exit those programs would likely be protected from foreclosure until the end of the year under the new proposal.

“Millions of families are at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure in the coming months, even as the country opens back up. Last week we warned that servicers need to be prepared for a high volume of borrowers exiting forbearance,” said acting CFPB Director David Uejio.

“We will do everything in our power to ensure servicers work with struggling families to find solutions that prevent avoidable foreclosures,” he added.

I explain here.

IMF sees record global economic growth in 2021: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects that COVID-19 vaccines and fiscal stimulus will push the global economy to a record growth level of 6 percent in 2021, led by an outsized recovery in the United States.

“The upgrades in global growth for 2021 and 2022 are mainly due to upgrades for advanced economies, particularly to a sizeable upgrade for the United States (1.3 percentage points) that is expected to grow at 6.4 percent this year,” the IMF’s research director, Gita Gopinath, wrote in a blog post on the latest World Economic Outlook report, released Tuesday.

“This makes the United States the only large economy projected to surpass the level of GDP it was forecast to have in 2022 in the absence of this pandemic,” she added.

The Hill’s Niv Elis breaks it down here.

GOOD TO KNOW

• Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced on Tuesday that the company is supportive of raising the corporate income tax rate to pay for President Biden’s infrastructure package.
• Bezos also topped Forbes’s annual world billionaires list for the fourth consecutive year
• U.S. job openings hit the highest level in two years in February as COVID-19 vaccination progress and loosening restrictions helped kickstart the American economy, according to data released Tuesday by the Labor Department.
• Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday said the U.S. is working closely with the international community to combat climate change, saying the country “lost four important years” under the Trump administration.

ODDS AND ENDS

• Republicans are spoiling for a high-profile fight with MLB as they ramp up pressure on the league’s commissioner to reverse a decision to pull the All-Star Game from Atlanta over Georgia’s new voting law.
• A coalition of independent businesses launched Tuesday with the goal of urging federal policy reform to rein in the market power of top tech companies.