Overnight Finance: Congress sends Trump bill to avert shutdown | GOP discovers corporate tax snag | CFPB leadership battle rages

Senate sends funding bill to Trump to avert government shutdown: The Senate on Thursday cleared a two-week stopgap funding bill, one day before the deadline to avoid a government shutdown.

The bill now heads to the White House, where President Trump is expected to sign it.

Congress had until the end of Friday to pass a bill or spark a government shutdown — something GOP leadership has been adamant they would not let happen while they control the levers of power in Washington.

Lawmakers now face another deadline on Dec. 22, setting up a funding showdown just three days before Christmas.

Top GOP senators urged their colleagues to support the legislation despite grumbling among some in the caucus about the impact a continuing resolution (CR) has on military spending: http://bit.ly/2k8eDBk.

House passes bill to avoid shutdown: The House on Thursday passed a two-week stopgap spending bill one day before a deadline to avoid a government shutdown.

House Republicans managed to pass the legislation on their own in the 235-193 vote, despite often coming short of securing a majority of the majority on measures to keep the government open in recent years.

The spending patch through Dec. 22 gives lawmakers time to negotiate a bipartisan budget deal. At that time, Congress is expected to pass another short-term patch so that appropriators can craft a spending package to keep federal agencies funded through the rest of the 2018 fiscal year.

“I think it’s kind of just basic governing is keeping government going while we negotiate the final details,” said Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

Ahead of Thursday’s vote, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) made clear that Democrats wouldn’t support the two-week stopgap.

Pelosi emphasized that Democrats don’t want to see a government shutdown, but couldn’t support Thursday’s bill because it doesn’t include their priorities like protections for young undocumented immigrants, funding for the opioid crisis and relief for communities affected by recent natural disasters.

“This is a waste of time,” Pelosi said at a press conference in the Capitol. Here’s more from The Hill’s Cristina Marcos: http://bit.ly/2k87T6u.

Republicans confront new snag for corporate tax cut: Republican senators are wrestling with how to handle the corporate alternative minimum tax (AMT) in the final tax-cut bill.

Senators had initially proposed repealing the corporate AMT. But not long before the chamber passed its tax bill early Saturday morning, they reinstated it to help offset other tax provisions.

The late addition has roiled business groups, who warn that keeping the corporate AMT would be harmful and dampen the economic benefits of the legislation.

Many Republicans say they want to repeal the tax or mitigate its impact. But there are challenges to doing so because lawmakers will have to find other ways to raise revenue.

“It would be nice if we could eliminate the AMT. However, I’d like to see what the pay-for would be,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) told reporters Wednesday.

When asked if the corporate AMT would be in the final bill, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said, “Right now it doesn’t look like it, but you never know.” The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda reports: http://bit.ly/2k7VC21.

McConnell names Senate GOP tax conferees: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday evening announced that eight Senate Republicans would serve on a conference committee to reconcile the House and Senate tax bills.

The announcement follows the Senate approving a motion for the legislation to go to conference earlier in the day.

“Now that the Senate has voted to join our House colleagues in a conference committee, I’m confident that this distinguished group of senators will work to get the job done for the American people,” McConnell said in a statement.

The conferees include three leaders of relevant committees: Senate Finance Committee Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

Besides cutting taxes, the bill also would allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, making Murkowski relevant.

McConnell also named five other GOP Finance Committee members to the conference: Sens. John Cornyn (Texas), John Thune (S.D.), Rob Portman (Ohio), Tim Scott (S.C.) and Pat Toomey (Pa.). http://bit.ly/2k8fIZS.

Happy Thursday and welcome back 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.

Poll: Most Americans believe GOP tax plan will help corporations, wealthy, investors: A majority of Americans polled believes the Republican-backed tax plan will benefit corporations and wealthy Americans, according to a new CBS News poll.

Seventy-six percent of Americans polled said they believed the plan would help corporations, while 69 percent said it would benefit the wealthy.

The poll also found 53 percent of those polled said they disapproved of the plan, while 35 percent said they approved of it.
Forty-one percent of Americans also said they expected their taxes to go up under the plan.

The poll comes less than a week after Senate Republicans fulfilled a major campaign promise in passing legislation to overhaul the U.S. tax code. It would reduce the corporate income tax from 35 percent to 20 percent and would lower tax rates for individuals through 2025. http://bit.ly/2k8pH1j.

Deputy consumer bureau chief challenges court ruling for control of agency: The deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) asked a federal court Wednesday night to halt a previous ruling that cleared President Trump to appoint a temporary chief in her place.

The move by CFPB Deputy Director Leandra English is the latest maneuver in the fight for control of the agency.

English filed an injunction in the District Court for the District of Columbia to block Office of Budget and Management Director Mick Mulvaney from leading the agency.

English’s complaint asks the court to impose her restraining order against Mulvaney after it dismissed her effort two weeks ago. I have more here: http://bit.ly/2k9fLVp.

Clinton hits GOP over lack of children’s health funding: Hillary Clinton is pushing Congress to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), denouncing Republicans for passing tax cuts while the program’s authorization has expired.

“I’m going to keep tweeting about this, and speaking out every chance I get, until it is fixed,” the former Democratic presidential nominee tweeted on Thursday.

The authorization for CHIP, which covers 9 million children, expired on Sept. 30, but no states have yet run out of money. Several states are in danger of running out soon, though, some by the end of the year.

While funding for the program has been bogged down in partisan fighting over how to pay for it, CHIP money is expected to be added to a year-end spending package later this month.

Congressional Democrats, in particular, are making CHIP funding a key demand: http://bit.ly/2k7uXSW.

US locks in duties on Canada’s softwood lumber industry: A U.S. trade panel on Thursday unanimously ruled to uphold hefty duties on Canada’s softwood lumber industry saying the U.S. industry has been harmed by unfair practices.

The U.S. International Trade Commission’s (ITC) made a final determination, in a 4-0 vote, that Canada subsidizes and dumps lumber exports into the United States, a move that is likely to increase already tense negotiations to update the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The U.S. Lumber Coalition, which filed a petition last year with the Commerce Department to open a case against Canada’s softwood lumber industry, praised the decision.
“The evidence presented to the ITC was clear — the massive subsidies that the Canadian government provides to its lumber industry and the dumping of lumber products into the U.S. market by Canadian companies cause real harm to U.S. producers and workers,” said Jason Brochu, U.S. Lumber’s co-chairman in a statement.

“Now, with a level playing field, the U.S. lumber industry, and the 350,000 hardworking men and women who support it, can have the chance to compete fairly,” Brochu said: http://bit.ly/2k7pI5U.

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