Overnight Finance: Highway bill faces resistance; White House pushes Ex-Im

TOMORROW STARTS TONIGHT: WHITE HOUSE PUSHES EX-IM. Keith Laing: “The White House is pushing senators to reauthorize the controversial Export-Import bank in must-pass transportation funding legislation that is being debated this week. 

“Republicans in the House have vocally objected to the idea of including an extension of the Ex-Im Bank’s charter in their version of the new highway bill, but White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the Senate should press ahead with their proposal to combine the measures anyway. 

{mosads}”‘The president, as you know, has been a strong advocate [of] ensuring that Congress acts quickly to reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank,'” Earnest said. http://bit.ly/1MlD7zU

THIS IS OVERNIGHT FINANCE, and tomorrow is Thursday. Tweet: @kevcirilli; email: kcirilli@digital-release.thehill.com; and subscribe: http://digital-release.thehill.com/signup/48

WONK TALK: Join The Hill for a special event on Tuesday, July 28.

In the wake of the global economic crisis, the financial sector is coming under increased scrutiny and international regulators are seeking to reform how insurers are supervised. But have overseas regulators become too powerful? Register here: http://bit.ly/1GEmubw

HIGHWAY ROADBLOCK? From Alexander Bolton and Peter Schroeder: “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s six-year highway bill is meeting stiff resistance from House Republicans and Democrats in both chambers, raising serious questions about whether it can pass the Senate. In the House, liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans united in objecting to the bill, with Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) saying it wouldn’t ‘fly.'”

“In the Senate, several meetings failed to win Democratic support for the legislation, which was negotiated by McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). A procedural vote to move forward with the measure, which had been expected Wednesday, has yet to be held.

“Senate Democrats emerged from a caucus meeting Wednesday to say they were undecided about whether to let the debate on the highway bill begin. They raised concerns about the how the funds would be split among highway and transit projects, the diversion of Social Security funds to pay for road and bridge projects, and the use of private agencies to collect unpaid taxes.” http://bit.ly/1LvaPDQ

BOEHNER DEFENDS HOUSE ON HIGHWAYS, via Keith Laing: “The House took a ‘responsible approach’ to extending federal transportation funding when it passed a five-month patch this month, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Wednesday.

“‘I think the House passed a responsible approach last week to fund our highway program through the end of this calendar year and continue to work to get a long-term, fully funded highway bill in place,’ he said. ‘Obviously, the Senate feels otherwise. They’ve got a process underway, and we’ll see what happens.'” http://bit.ly/1RRVf9g

SHELBY BILL ATTACHED TO APPROPS, via Rebecca Shabad: Senate Republicans have attached to a spending bill controversial legislation that would implement a sweeping overhaul of the financial regulatory system.

The attached measure is the text of an authorization bill that the Senate Banking Committee advanced in a party-line vote in May. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), chairman of the Banking panel and an appropriator, sponsors the measure.

Shelby’s portion of the $20.6 billion spending bill would allow for more regional and community banks to be exempt from regulations imposed by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street financial reform law in an effort to provide regulatory relief to businesses.

Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) attached the entire text of Shelby’s authorization bill to the fiscal 2016 Financial Services and General Government funding measure.

In a statement, Shelby called the move “another step in the process of moving a sensible proposal forward” on financial reform. http://bit.ly/1KlIDQC

Called it last night, just sayin’…

SOCIAL SECURITY’S FUTURE: From Rebecca Shabad: “Social Security and Medicare are inching slowly toward insolvency, according to annual trustees reports on the entitlement programs released Wednesday.

“Social Security’s retirement and disability trust funds, combined, are on track for insolvency in 2034 — one year later than the entitlement program’s trustees predicted one year ago.” http://bit.ly/1Lvc5a3

NOTABLE: CLINTON ECONOMIC GURU OPPOSES FIDUCIARY PROPOSAL. That’s right. Robert Litan, former Clinton OMB associate director and Brookings fellow; as well as Hal Singer, senior fellow at Progressive Policy Institute in a WSJ op-ed: “If you’re a Democratic policy maker worried about retirement savings for the little guy, would you deny millions of small savers access to financial advisers in ways that could cost them $80 billion in the next market downturn? Would you ask working families to pay more to keep the adviser they have? The obvious answer to both is no. But the White House and the Labor Department have teamed up to propose a new ‘fiduciary rule’ on brokers and advisers serving individual retirement account investors, which would produce precisely these unintended consequences.” Op-ed: http://on.wsj.com/1MnQbWu Read their report: http://bit.ly/1MlF0MP

— MORE FIDUCIARY FIGHT: Fidelity Investments — a major player in the fiduciary fight — is arguing that the Department of Labor’s proposed regs would end up hurting middle-income Americans’ access to financial advice. From a Fidelity spokesperson: “Fidelity supports the application of a best interest standard when providing investment advice so long as broad prohibited transaction relief is also available.” Read their DOL comment letter: http://bit.ly/1MJ5PbM

MINIMUM WAGE AD BLASTS WAGE HIKE. The Employment Policies Institute (EPI) placed an ad in The Hill today slamming Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who wants to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. The ad’s headline reads: “Think a $15 Minimum Wage Is a Good Idea?” Below that, it says: “Ask the Employees Who Lost Job Opportunities.” The ad then describes three of the many documented cases of employees losing job opportunities because of drastic minimum wage increases. They’re launching a website called www.facesof15.com to describe the impacts of Sanders’ proposed wage hike. View the ad: http://bit.ly/1KkLLMP

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