OVERNIGHT FINANCE: Fast-track clears Senate hurdle

TOMORROW STARTS TONIGHT: PAUL RYAN TO OBAMA’S RESCUE ON TRADE? The trade fight is heading to the House. Vicki Needham for the hometown paper: “Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is rallying Republicans around fast-track authority. Ryan, the chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, spent Thursday morning courting his party for votes before heading out of town for the Memorial Day recess.

— THE POLICY BEHIND THE POLITICS, via Needham: “Fast-track would allow President Obama to send the [Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation economic partnership] to Congress for an up-or-down vote. Lawmakers would also not be able to amend the trade pact if fast-track is approved.”

{mosads}– OBAMA’S CHALLENGE: COURTING GOP IN HOSTILE HOUSE. More from Needham: “Obama faces a tall order in winning approval for fast-track in the House, given opposition in both parties. While he must win over more Democrats, GOP leaders are seeking to limit Republican defections.”http://bit.ly/1AnRb8s

— SENATE RECAP: The Hill’s Jordain Carney: “The Senate voted Thursday to end debate on fast-track trade legislation, handing a significant victory to President Obama and moving the bill a step closer to passage. Senators voted 62-38 on the bill, which will allow the president to send a sweeping Asia-Pacific trade deal to Congress for an up-or-down vote, and prevent the deal from being amended by Congress.” http://bit.ly/1cQSK42

THIS IS OVERNIGHT FINANCE, and what a day, folks. Enjoy your three-day weekend. Safe travels. Tweet: @kevcirilli; email: kcirilli@digital-release.thehill.com; and subscribe: http://digital-release.thehill.com/signup/48. Back to work…

FIDUCIARY FIGHT: BPC TO HOST DEBATE. This will be a wonk-war throw-down. The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) is hosting a forum dubbed “Champions, Critics and Consequences of a New Fiduciary Standard” on May 27. Jeffrey Zients, National Economic Council director, will keynote. Details / registration: http://bit.ly/1FFNrBy

LEGISLATIVE DAYS UNTIL EX-IM SHUTS DOWN: 17. The Ex-Im politicking was in full-swing today, with critics and supporters alike each claiming they have momentum as the clock ticks down to the June 30 deadline.

Here’s the bottom line:

1.) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has guaranteed again a vote on Ex-Im before June 30 in the Senate, despite his personal opposition to it. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) failed to have an amendment attached to the trade bill that would reauthorize the bank but McConnell assured them they would get a chance to have a vote before the June 30 deadline. 

2.) The highway funding bill remains the most likely vehicle for Ex-Im. Insiders at the bank and sources familiar with the Bank’s strategy have told me for weeks that the highway funding bill has always been the most likely vehicle for Ex-Im to get reauthorized. Lawmakers in the Senate, meanwhile, are also trying to beat a May 31 deadline to prevent an interruption in the federal government’s transportation funding that could serve as a vehicle for Ex-Im’s reauthorization. That means that the Bank will likely temporarily partially shut down in July if lawmakers can’t vote on Highway Trust Fund before the deadline, as even Graham told me in the hallway today. Alex Bolton has the story, with an assist from me: http://bit.ly/1Hl2iw6

— GRAHAM’s full remarks only in OVERNIGHT FINANCE: “The key to me was not just voting in June, because nothing is going to pass in June that will be signed by the president but in July there will be. So we want to vote in June to show support for the bank and in July we’ll have a vote on the Highway Trust Fund legislation that must pass… We’ll have a vote in June telling the world that there’s support for the Ex-Im Bank… It doesn’t have to be a stand-alone piece, it could an amendment on any vehicle. We want to vote in June to demonstrate support for the bank and we want to vote in July so that it has to become law.”

3.) House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is feeling the Ex-Im pressure from the business community and the Tea Party. Regardless of where you think the momentum in the House is on Ex-Im, Boehner is caught in the middle. Earlier today, as we first reported exclusively last night, Rep. Bill Flores (R-Texas) and the Republican Study Committee (RSC) came out against Ex-Im. Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.), who authored the Ex-Im reauth GOP bill, called the RSC’s opposition “misleading” since 33 RSC members are co-sponsors on his bill. My take on the RSC drama: http://bit.ly/1dnED75

— HENSARLING in a statement: “Leadership has committed the House to regular order, which is a fair process… We will have to see what, if anything, the Senate does. But momentum in the House is clearly in favor of those of us who do not wish to reauthorize Ex-Im… Momentum is in our favor because ultimately the American people do not want to have their tax dollars supporting this corporate giveaway program.” Story via Scott Wong with an assist from me: http://bit.ly/1Lqzxlz

THE STORM AHEAD: HENSARLING SUBPOENAS FED. Pete Schroeder: “The House Financial Services Committee has subpoenaed the Federal Reserve for documents pertaining to a 2012 leak of sensitive market information. Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) said the central bank has ‘repeatedly’ failed to produce documents tied to the panel’s probe of the leak, requiring legal action.” http://bit.ly/1BeXer4

QUICK Q FROM SHEILA BAIR: CAN WARREN AND HENSARLING FIX TAX CODE? The former chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) brings the wonk-world click bait in Fortune: http://for.tn/1ejh9jR

SENATE BANKING CLEARS SHELBY BILL WITHOUT DEMOCRATS. Called it last night. My take for the hometown paper: The Senate Banking Committee approved a financial overhaul package on a 12-10 vote Thursday, but without support from moderate Democrats seen as crucial to the sweeping proposal clearing the upper chamber. The vote was split along party lines, with Republicans arguing the legislation would provide regulatory relief to boost the economy and Democrats saying it will weaken the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. The tally indicates that the bill’s author, Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), will have a hard time clearing 60-vote procedural hurdle generally needed to get a floor vote in the Senate. 

— SHELBY: THIS IS ROUND ONE. “This is round one,” Shelby said with a smile. “It’s a good start. We’ve raised the level of debate on this and there are four, five, six Democrats that might be able to work with us on this on the committee. This is the beginning of some serious negotiations.” He said it was “not a routine piece of legislation” because of the bill’s economic impacts. “We’re not trying to get cloture right now,” he said. “We’re moving to the second step to have some serious negotiations.”

— BROWN: DODD-FRANK ISN’T GOING DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT. Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), the panel’s top Democrat, railed at the bill during the hearing as a “one-sided [industry] wish list — pleasing to various interest groups but lacking any provisions to help the average American trying to navigate our financial system.” “We start with community banks, we should do where there is consensus, move quickly because the other [issues] will take longer, so we can get something out in the spring still before summer and get it signed by the president,” Brown told me after the hearing. “And then let’s sit down and talk about” the other issues, such as Fed reform. My recap: http://bit.ly/1LhsZoQ

— HOW IT PLAYED: Bloomberg: “Shelby banking bill advances despite Democrats’ opposition;” … The Hill: “Senate finance bill clears Senate panel:” … LA Times: “Senate panel approves GOP bill to loosen some financial regulations;” … ABC News: “GOP senators advance bill to ease rules on smaller banks;” … WSJ: “Senate Banking Committee Adopts Financial-Regulation Bill in Party-Line Vote;” … Reuters: “Senate panel’s bank oversight bill gets no Democratic votes.”

— HOLTZ-EAKIN IN HUFFPO: Yep, conservative economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin has a new op-ed defending the Shelby bill in The Huffington Post. The president and founder of the American Action Forum writes: “Dodd-Frank is a sweeping regulatory initiative and there is no reason to believe that Congress got it right the first time around. It did not. But it is equally unrealistic to equate any small attempt to improve it as a wholesale assault on the desirable goal of avoiding a future financial crisis.” http://huff.to/1LfJotT

TOM BRADY, BIG BANKS, THE NFL AND FSOC. The Financial Services Roundtable’s Francis Creighton ties Deflategate to FSOC: “Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve no doubt heard the news that Tom Brady, the quarterback of the New England Patriots, has been suspended from the first 4 games of the next NFL season for allegedly deflating his footballs… [People think it’s crazy] that Brady, who is appealing his suspension, has to appeal to the same man who suspended him, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Why not use an arbitrator? Why not use some independent third party who isn’t the judge, the jury and the executioner?

“Unfortunately something similar is also happening in Washington, with far-reaching consequences for the economy and consumers. This happens today at the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC)… Now, I hate the Patriots, so I’m not in the tank for Tom Brady. But the basic standards of due process should apply in this private case between a private employer and an employee. And the basic standards of due process should certainly apply when the government decides when it is going to intervene.”

— OVERNIGHT MUSINGS: Regardless of whether you agree with Creighton or not, this column is probably the best articulated policy paper we’ve read in months. It’s an example of how to take a wonky, complex, in-the-weeds, “boring” issue and translate it for “everyday Americans.”http://bit.ly/1R86J4G

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