QUICK Q – – > ARE INTERNATIONAL REGULATORS TOO POWERFUL? I will be exploring this question tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. with Reps. French Hill (R-Ark.) and Steve Stivers (R-Ohio). More in a minute, but first… Register: http://bit.ly/1fAQjE8
TOMORROW STARTS TONIGHT: EX-IM JAMS HIGHWAY BILL. HOUSE PUSHES SHORT-TERM EXTENSION. Scott Wong (who is back after his wife gave birth to a beautiful daughter, Abby) for The Hill: The House will not vote on a multi-year Senate highway bill that revives the now-expired Export-Import Bank, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Monday.
{mosads}”We’re not taking up the Senate bill,” McCarthy declared to a roomful of reporters in his office. Instead, McCarthy urged the Senate to take up a short-term House-passed bill which extends federal highway funding for five months, without renewing the Ex-Im Bank charter.
He called the House bill the “best option” for Congress before money for highways, bridges and mass transit runs out on Friday. McCarthy’s declaration is a blow not only to the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) had teamed up to craft the bipartisan, long-term highway bill. It’s also a blow to backers of the Ex-Im Bank, who had hoped the 81-year-old institution would be revived by catching a ride on the back of the Senate transportation bill. http://bit.ly/1fAJT81
THIS IS OVERNIGHT FINANCE, and a thunderstorm is coming tonight. Hope you brought your umbrella. Tweet: @kevcirilli; email: kcirilli@digital-release.thehill.com; and subscribe:http://digital-release.thehill.com/signup/48.
CHINA SPOOKS MARKET, via CNBC: “U.S. stocks closed lower on Monday under pressure from an overnight plunge in the Shanghai Composite and a continued decline in commodities, amid a lackluster earnings season. ‘The fear factor of China is very much alive in the market. That’s nearing us to some technical support levels,’ said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital. ‘Slow growth out of China just complicates the oil picture.'” http://cnb.cx/1D6Bh3Q
ON-TAP FOR THIS WEEK: HOUSE FINSERV MARKUP. The House Financial Services Committee is heading into the August recess with a bang. Tomorrow afternoon, they’ll begin marking-up 14 bills with a vote scheduled on Thursday. What to watch:
1.) Federal Reserve transparency: Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) reintroduced legislation that would increase transparency at the central bank. Should this pass committee on Thursday — it could come to the floor, leading to one helluva of a fall fight.
2.) Fannie / Freddie CEO pay: This bill was introduced by Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.). Democrats previously supporting capping Fannie and Freddie CEO pay, but now that one of their guys is leading FHA (cc: Mel Watt), who knows how Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) will vote. Earlier this month, they got a $3.4 million pay-raise. My primer on that: http://bit.ly/1VJJelq
Bring the popcorn…
NOT THE ONION – – > GINGRICH, WARREN AGREE, via me: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) have found one thing they agree on. The liberal senator and architect of the “Republican Revolution” on Monday appeared together at a panel event urging increased funding for federal research programs. Gingrich said that one of the “most fiscally responsible steps we can take” as a country is to boost research funding for diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and cancer. He said one of the regrets of his speakership in the 1990s is that he did not triple funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF). “Three cheers to Speaker Gingrich,” Warren said in response. http://bit.ly/1D6MwJx
Hashtag, bipartisanship…
MORE FROM THE HILL’S FORUM TOMORROW: After our first panel with lawmakers, I’ll sit down with Cato’s Mark Calabria, Peterson Institute’s Adam Posen; International Insurance Regulatory Affairs managing director Christina Urias; and Drake University’s Terri Vaughan. Register: http://bit.ly/1fAQjE8
GAO: MORE REGULATORY COORDINATION NEEDED, via me: A top federal watchdog said Monday that U.S. regulators for insurance giants could do a better job coordinating their efforts with their international counterparts.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that regulators are still in the early stages of setting capital requirements for insurance companies, but their communication efforts need improvement. http://bit.ly/1HW5T6X
FIDUCIARY FIGHT – – > SCOOPLET: SUPPORT ERODING ON HFSC FOR FIDUCIARY REGS. Several Republicans and Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee are urging President Obama to go back to the drawing board with a controversial regulatory proposal for financial advisers.
Reps. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), Andy Barr (R-Ky.) David Scott (D-Ga.) and Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) are circulating a letter to colleagues warning that the “fiduciary” proposal put forward by the Obama administration could limit the availability of financial advice to the middle class.
“We ask that you join our letter to the Department of Labor asking for a re-proposal on their fiduciary rule-making, in order to ensure that there are no unintended consequences in enforcing a best interest standard that could negatively impact millions of low- and middle-income investors,” Wagner wrote in the letter, which was first obtained by The Hill.
Wagner has emerged as one of the top critics in Congress of the regulatory push, which is being carried out by the Department of Labor.
But the involvement of Scott and Clay — two prominent members of the Congressional Black Caucus — indicates there is also skepticism among Democrats about the rule, which is strongly opposed by the business community. http://bit.ly/1HW6e9T
TUNE IN: I’ll be on Capital Insider on News Channel 8 tonight at 8 p.m. Watch me live if you’re in Washington D.C.’s viewing area. I’ll be on Fox News tomorrow in the early afternoon.
BPC SLAMS HIGHWAY ‘PAY-FOR.’ The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Aaron Kline and his team are out with an op-ed attacking McConnell’s effort to pay for the transportation bill: “Congress should strongly resist changing the rate the Federal Reserve pays to member banks as dividends for the capital they hold in the Federal Reserve System without a vigorous and public debate.
“The Fed is a hybrid central bank–both public and private–and is a complicated, delicate operation. Proposals to thoughtfully examine its structure, such as the idea put forth by Senate Banking Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) to create a special commission to study and produce recommendations to change the Federal Reserve System, deserve public debate and potential congressional action. Ideas to further incentivize the Federal Reserve System to more wisely use its resources, which come fundamentally at taxpayer expense, also deserve consideration. There may well be avenues that Congress can and should take to more effectively manage the Federal Reserve System that will provide savings to taxpayers.” http://bit.ly/1D317Gc
DEBATE PREP: GOPers SCRAMBLE TO MAKE STAGE, via Jonathan Easley: “The race is on for the final spots on stage for the first Republican debate. With the highly-anticipated showdown less than two weeks away, candidates with low polling numbers are in a high-stakes scramble to qualify for an event that represents their best shot at breaking out. Fox News is capping the Aug. 6 debate in Cleveland at 10 candidates based on five as-of-yet unspecified national polls released by 5 p.m. on Aug. 4.” http://bit.ly/1S72YQH
— THE JOCKEYING, via Easley: “New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, businesswoman Carly Fiorina, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal are separated by only 1.5 percentage points, according to the RCP national average at the end of last week. Christie looks to be in the best shape of the bunch, sitting in 9th place with 2.8 percent support. Perry and Kasich are tied for 10th with 1.8 percent support, followed by Fiorina and Santorum at 1.4 percent, and Jindal at 1.2. (By contrast, the lowest of the top eight, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), has 5.4 percent support; the highest, Donald Trump, has 18.2 percent.)”
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