Overnight Finance: Pressure builds for GOP on taxes | NAFTA talks to begin in August | DOJ expands asset seizure program | Regulator defends charters for financial tech firms

Healthcare debacle raises pressure for GOP on taxes: The GOP’s setback on healthcare is raising pressure on Republicans to deliver a win for their party and the White House on taxes ahead of the midterm elections.

ObamaCare repeal and tax reform were two of the GOP’s biggest priorities at the start of the year, and expectations for success were high given the party’s control of the House, Senate and White House.

With the collapse of the Senate’s effort to pass healthcare legislation, the stakes are even higher for Republicans on tax reform.

Tax reform is “now increasingly important to the economy, and increasingly important to Republicans’ political prospects in the future,” Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist said.

In fact, given the healthcare debacle, Norquist warns GOP lawmakers up for reelection that tax reform “better be spectacular.” The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda reports: http://bit.ly/2vDSDCq.

 

NAFTA talks will start next month in Washington: The first round of negotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are set for next month in Washington, D.C.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Wednesday that talks with Mexico and Canada are slated for Aug. 16-20 in the nation’s capital. 

John Melle, assistant U.S. Trade Representative for the Western Hemisphere, will serve as chief negotiator for the NAFTA negotiations.

The three nations are in discussions about logistics for the first meeting.
Stakes are high in the revamp of the 23-year-old deal that has created a $1.1 trillion trading zone among the three nations since it was implemented in the 1990s: http://bit.ly/2vDCltq.

 

Bank regulator defends national fintech charter plan: The acting chief of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Wednesday defend his agency’s plan to issue national banking charters to financial technology companies that offer banking services.

Acting Comptroller Keith Noreika said in a Wednesday speech that the OCC should be able to charter so-called “fintech” companies that offer banking services, such as loan underwriting and money transfers, and bring them under federal regulation. The Conference of State Bank Supervisors and New York Department of Financial Services are suing the OCC over the plan.

“Companies that offer banking products and services should be allowed to apply for national bank charters so that they can pursue their businesses on a national scale if they choose, and if they meet the criteria and standards for doing so,” Noreika said.

“If you provide banking products and services, acting like a bank, you ought to be regulated and supervised like a bank. It is only fair, but today, that is not happening.”  I explain here: http://bit.ly/2vE1d4e.

 

Happy Wednesday and welcome to Overnight Finance. 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.

 

On tap tomorrow

• House Financial Services Subcommittee on Monetary Policy and Trade: Hearing entitled “Monetary Policy v. Fiscal Policy: Risks to Price Stability and the Economy,” 9:30 a.m. http://bit.ly/2s9nsQP.
• Senate Banking Committee: Hearing entitled “Housing Finance Reform: Maintaining Access for Small Lenders,” 10 a.m. http://bit.ly/2uZPk9p.

 

Supreme Court sets date for Trump travel ban arguments: The Supreme Court has scheduled arguments in the closely watched legal fight over President Trump’s travel ban for the second week of the court’s new term starting in October. 

Arguments will be held on Oct. 10, according to a copy of the court’s calendar released Wednesday. The court has consolidated the challenges the International Refugee Assistance Project and the state of Hawaii brought against Trump’s March 6 order for one hour of arguments. 

The Supreme Court last month gave Trump a partial win when it said the government could ban entry of nationals from six countries — Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — but carved out an exemption for individuals who have a “bona fide relationship” to a person or entity in the U.S.

A Hawaii district court judge clarified the meaning of a “bona fide relationship,” and extended the exemption to grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews and cousins of individuals living in the U.S., as well as refugees who have assurance from a U.S.-based refugee resettlement agency for placement in the U.S. The Hill’s Lydia Wheeler has more: http://bit.ly/2vDAwg7.

 

DOJ expands asset seizure program: Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday advised his Department of Justice (DOJ) to re-establish a criminal asset seizure program that had been curbed under pressure from lawmakers and civil liberties groups worried that the policy is ripe for abuse.

The Justice Department, with President Trump’s support, will give new authority to law enforcement agencies to seize money, contraband and property when they can prove those assets are the ill-gotten gains of criminal activity.

In an agency-wide memo, the acting chief of the DOJ’s Criminal Division, Deborah Connor, characterized the program as an essential tool in starving gang members, drug traffickers and terrorists of their means and tools.

The proceeds, the Justice Department says, will infuse law enforcement agencies with financial resources, equipment and training in the fight against violent crime.

“Agencies and components should prioritize the adoption of assets that will advance the Attorney General’s Violent Crime Reduction Strategy,” Connor said. “The Department, through legal counsel for federal investigative agencies as well as through the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, will continue to ensure that adoptions are conducted in compliance with law and Department policies.”

But some critics, like Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), worry that the policy will be abused by rogue government agents to steal from the innocent, who don’t have the means to challenge the seizures in court.

The Hill’s Jonathan Easley explains here: http://bit.ly/2vDRQl8

 

Ryan to sell tax reform at Mass. factory Thursday: Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will make the case for tax reform on Thursday at a New Balance shoe manufacturing facility in Massachusetts, as he works to rally businesses behind Republican plans to rewrite the tax code.

The Speaker’s remarks will come days after the Senate’s effort to repeal ObamaCare fell apart. Without a win on healthcare, the stakes will be high for Republicans to pass tax legislation ahead of the midterm elections.

In an interview with “The Mike Gallagher Show” on Wednesday, Ryan said he was hopeful that the White House and congressional Republicans would get the job done.

“The good thing about tax reform, unlike, say healthcare, is Republicans are sort of wired the same way,” he said. “Our DNA is very, very similar, and we all know that we must do this, because it’s been since ’86 … and the rest of the world has passed us up and we have the worst tax system in the world, and we got to fix that.” http://bit.ly/2vDX9RC.

 

Housing construction bounced back in June: Housing construction popped back to life in June after a three straight months of declines, reaching the fastest pace since February.

Housing starts increased 8.3 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.22 million units, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

Single-family building rose 6.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 849,000 units, the second-highest rate this year, from May’s 799,000.

June’s report showed that multi-family construction, like apartment buildings, jumped 13.3 percent to 366,000. The Hill’s Vicki Needham breaks it down: http://bit.ly/2vDzBwb.

 

Trump labor board nominees advance in Senate: A Senate panel on Wednesday advanced the nominations of two lawyers picked by President Trump to fill the open seats on the National Labor Relations Board.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted 12-11 along party lines to send the nominations of Marvin Kaplan and William Emanuel to the floor for a full vote.

Kaplan now serves as chief counsel for the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. Emanuel, an attorney with the law firm Littler Mendelson, works on labor and employment matters and has represented clients before the NLRB.

With their nominations to the five-member board, Trump has the opportunity to shift the balance of power on the NLRB from Democrats to Republicans. Business groups have long argued the board — responsible for enforcing workers’ collective bargaining rights and fair labor practices — unfairly favors unions or employers: http://bit.ly/2vDSkb4.

 

Committee approves $31.4B Interior, EPA spending bill: A House panel has approved a bill to cut the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) funding by $528 million but reject several deep cuts sought by President Trump.

The House Appropriations Committee voted 30-21 late Tuesday to send to the House floor its $31.4 billion funding bill for the EPA, the Interior Department and other programs.

Republicans supported the bill and hailed it as a measure that “prioritizes critical programs that protect our air land and water within a tight budget while also reining in burdensome regulations,” said committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.)

Beyond the proposed EPA cut, the bill would slash the Interior Department’s funding by 7 percent and pass on cuts to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Geological Survey. http://bit.ly/2vDyOeK.

 

White House considers scaling back proposed corporate tax cut: reports: The White House is discussing a corporate tax rate that’s higher than the 15 percent rate included in the plan administration officials released in April, according to media reports.

Politico reported Tuesday that administration officials are looking at a corporate tax rate of 20 to 25 percent, citing “administration officials and other advisers.” Similarly, The New York Times on Wednesday reported that the rate for businesses could ultimately be in the low 20 percent range, citing a person briefed on the topic.

A corporate rate in the 20 percent range would still be lower than the current corporate rate of 35 percent. The tax-reform blueprint House Republicans released last year included a 20 percent corporate tax rate: http://bit.ly/2vDC3Tr.

 

Poll: Majority of Americans distrust billionaires: A majority of Americans hold an unfavorable view of billionaires, according to a Bloomberg News national poll released Wednesday.

The poll found that fewer than a third of the people surveyed say they admire billionaires, 31 percent, while 53 percent distrust them. Sixteen percent responded that they were not sure.

Republicans were found to be more likely to admire billionaires than Democrats, with 53 percent of Republicans in the poll indicating that they trust the wealthy while only 17 percent of Democrats responded that they trust billionaires, according to Bloomberg.

President Trump is the first billionaire to hold the presidency and has appointed two other billionaires and at least a dozen millionaires to his Cabinet, Bloomberg noted. The president’s Cabinet has a combined net worth of about $6 billion: http://bit.ly/2vDBOrq.

Write us with tips, suggestions and news: slane@digital-release.thehill.com, vneedham@digital-release.thehill.com, njagoda@digital-release.thehill.com and nelis@digital-release.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @SylvanLane,  @VickofTheHill, @NJagoda and @NivElis