EXCLUSIVE: House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) is circulating a letter tonight with Judiciary Chaiman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) calling on House Republicans to do some soul-searching as a conference before electing a leader.
— THE SCENE: Hensarling talking with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who has said he’s not running for Speaker. Will Hensarling? His office has been tight-lipped all afternoon.
{mosads}– THE LETTER: “Members need to come together to figure out what we are and where we are going as a Conference, before we figure out who will lead us… Too often decisions are made in a 24/7 news cycle where people do not have full information, have not fully considered the consequences of action or inaction, and Members are locked into a position that may very well change based on future circumstances.” The letter states that “members not commit to a determinative course of action before our Conference can meet and find a shared set of goals and governing vision that benefits the nation and our constituents… We are all committed to a thorough review of the processes and procedures that guide our Conference and the House… We agree that finding a conservative leader with the temperament, disposition, leadership qualities, and ability to be a leader of the House, our Conference, and the nation is our shared goal.”
— WHO SIGNED: GOP Reps. Paul Ryan (Wis.), Trey Gowdy (S.C.), Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Bill Shuster (Pa.) and Peter Roskam (Ill.) were some of the 17 other members who signed the letter. http://bit.ly/1Pkb6u6
THIS IS OVERNIGHT FINANCE, where we still feel like we’re living in an episode of “House of Cards.” They don’t do it like this in Delco, folks. Tweet: @kevcirilli; email: kcirilli@digital-release.thehill.com; and subscribe: http://digital-release.thehill.com/signup/48. Back to work…
TOMORROW STARTS TONIGHT: WHAT GOP SHOCKER MEANS… Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s decision to pull out of the Speaker race has sent politicos across this town into a tailspin. Never before has there been such an uncertain power vacuum within the GOP — all of this while outside of Congress Republican contenders jockey for the presidential nomination. From a policy standpoint, Congress has a high-priority to-do list that has never been more uncertain after today’s events.
1.) Debt limit. This could be a mess. Lawmakers must vote to raise the nation’s $18.1 trillion debt limit before Nov. 5. Failure to do so would mean the U.S. won’t be able to make good on its payments — a move that would could be disastrous to the global economy. You already know: Some Republicans want to use the debt ceiling to force Obama to make budget concessions. Democrats are adamant that Congress just pass legislation to raise the debt ceiling without any attachments. Why the Speakership race matters: Who is leading on this in the House. McCarthy? Not going to be Speaker, but staying on as majority leader. Boehner? He may be forced to helm the talks until he leaves, but conservatives will ramp up their pressure as he heads to the exit. Who can Democrats negotiate with?
— Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in a statement: “The utter chaos of the Republican party must not threaten the full faith and credit of the United States and the American people. While negotiations on a budget deal continue, we should work together immediately to take the threat of default off the table.”
2.) Budget talks. Lawmakers have until Dec. 11 to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government open. Given the current state of affairs in the House, Republicans don’t even know what they want to ask for or how they want to play out the negotiations. The bottom line: This town’s general thinking come December is that Republicans aren’t going to want to shut down the government heading into 2016. But that means that there’s a scenario where the debit limit and budget talks could be rolled together into one. That’s going to make for one helluva Capitol Hill holiday special, folks.
— Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) in a statement: “It’s now official – the inmates are running the asylum.”
3.) Export-Import Bank: Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.) wanted to file his discharge petition by Sunday. But even if that timetable still stands, there’s no way of knowing if the new Speaker will whip against it. Why would any House Republicans want to sign a discharge petition right now without knowing if such a signature will buck the new Speaker? McCarthy was largely perceived as backing the bank, despite publicly saying he was against it. Many supporters of Ex-Im thought there was little political risk for Republicans to back the petition and little chance they would permanently hurt their standing with the incoming Speaker. All of that thinking? Out the window. Plus, has Jeb Hensarling ruled out a run yet?
— SMART READ, via Roll Call’s Simone Pathé on the districts where the Ex-Im drama could be a political nightmare for politicians: http://bit.ly/1JSsrmH
LIBERALS ATTACK HILLARY’S WALL STREET PLAN – – > WHERE’S GLASS-STEAGALL? My take for The Hill: Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s primary opponents attacked her financial regulatory plan on Thursday for failing to do enough to police Wall Street.
Clinton unveiled a plan earlier Thursday that she said would strengthen Wall Street regulations — but her challengers say it has one glaring omission: a failure to reinstate Glass-Steagall.
Liberals like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have pressed for lawmakers to re-impose Glass-Steagall, which President Bill Clinton repealed in the late 1990s. The legislation requires for financial institutions to divide their commercial and investment banking systems in an effort to break up banks.
Liberals, including Clinton’s Democratic challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), argue that Glass-Steagall’s repeal was part of the deregulation that contributed to the 2008 crisis. Most economists — and the Clintons — vehemently refute this and argue that its repeal led to more economic growth.
— SANDERS: “Given the image of big banks today, it is easy now to take on Wall Street. I was there when it was not so popular,” Sanders said in a statement, without mentioning Clinton by name. “I was proud to lead the fight in the House against repealing the Glass-Steagall Act.”
— O’MALLEY: O’Malley said Clinton’s plan “falls short on what should be our ultimate goal: preventing reckless Wall Street speculators from backing up their bad bets with taxpayer money.” “We need a defined firewall between Wall Street and taxpayers so that we are never again forced to bail out a bank’s reckless behavior,” said O’Malley, the former Maryland governor, in a statement. http://bit.ly/1N2keRC
FED MINUTES: YELLEN & CO. WORRIED ABOUT GLOBAL GROWTH, via CNBC: “The U.S. Federal Reserve thought the economy was close to warranting an interest rate hike in September but policymakers decided it was prudent to wait for evidence a global economic slowdown was not knocking America off course.
“The minutes from the Sept. 16-17 meeting released on Thursday showed the Fed’s policymaking committee was unsettled by signs of a global economic slowdown but didn’t think this had ‘materially altered’ the outlook for the economy.
“‘Nevertheless, in part because of the risks to the outlook for economic activity and inflation, the committee decided that it was prudent to wait for additional information,’ the Fed said in the minutes.” http://cnb.cx/1P1m3Bq
JOBLESS CLAIMS FALL, via Vicki Needham: First-time claims for jobless benefits fell sharply last week, a sign that employers are keeping their workers even as they have recently slowed their pace of hiring. Weekly applications for unemployment insurance dropped 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 263,000, keeping levels near historic lows, Labor Department said Thursday. http://bit.ly/1G0uTwj
TAX GROUPS CONCERNED ABOUT NEW PROPOSAL, via Becker: A top business lobby says its worried that new international tax recommendations could put sensitive business information at risk. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) said Thursday that the project from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development would “impose substantial and unnecessary compliance costs on manufacturers.” http://bit.ly/1FVkIJM
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