Happy Wednesday and welcome back to On The Money, which is still a little too long to fit on a postcard. 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.
Write us with tips, suggestions and news: slane@digital-release.thehill.com, vneedham@digital-release.thehill.com, njagoda@digital-release.thehill.com and nelis@digital-release.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @SylvanLane, @VickofTheHill, @NJagoda and @NivElis.
THE BIG DEAL–Ross skewered by Senate on tariffs: Senators hammered Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Wednesday over the Trump administration’s tariffs during a contentious hearing on Capitol Hill.
Ross faced a wall of bipartisan criticism with senators questioning President Trump’s trade actions and expressing fears over retaliation from trading partners.
On the hot seat, Ross defended the tariffs as necessary to protect American businesses.
“Actions taken by the president are necessary to revive America’s essential steel and aluminum industries,” Ross told lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee. “Allowing imports to continue unchecked threatens to impair our national security.”
The heated hearing comes as lawmakers in both parties have raised alarm over Trump’s moves in recent weeks to implement a series of tariffs on China as well as U.S. allies, including Canada, Mexico and the European Union.
Those tariffs have rattled markets and sparked anger in the business community, which has warned they could lead to job losses, damage growth and undercut any gains from the GOP tax law.
The Hill’s Vicki Needham takes us to the testy showdown here.
Reactions:
- “I just don’t see how the damage posed on all of these sectors could possibly advance our national security.” — Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
- “We’re getting into a war that going to cost lots of billions of dollars.” — Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.).
- “They are being held hostage in a bureaucratic twilight zone waiting to see if they’re going to escape.” — Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, about small business seeking exemptions for imports.
- “I wish we would stop invoking national security, because that’s not what this is about. This is about economic nationalism.” — Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).
- “What is it about the Canadian steel industry that is a national security threat?” — Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.)
- “This thing seems to be escalating out of control fairly quickly.” — Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.)
More homework for Ross: Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) is pressing the Trump administration for details on the implementation of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter on Wednesday to Ross asking for details on how the Commerce Department is deciding which countries will be exempted from the steep financial penalties, which he said were having “damaging” effects on U.S. businesses.
ON TAP TOMORROW
- Brookings Institution hosts an event on infrastructure jobs opportunity, 9 a.m.
- House Financial Service Committee: Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton testifies during a hearing on SEC oversight, 10 a.m.
- House Education and the Workforce Committee: Hearing entitled “”Growth, Opportunity, and Change in the U.S. Labor Market and the American Workforce: A Review of Current Developments, Trends, and Statistics,” 10 a.m.
- House Financial Services Committee: Markup of three investment and capital markets bills, 2 p.m.
LEADING THE DAY
EU levies tariffs on $3.2B on US goods over metals duties: The European Union on Friday will slap billions in additional tariffs on U.S. exports in reaction to President Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs.
The EU said on Wednesday that it will impose a 25 percent tariff on $3.2 billion in American goods ranging from Harley-Davidson motorcycles to jeans and bourbon, the European Commission in Brussels announced.
“We did not want to be in this position,” EU Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström said in a statement.
“However, the unilateral and unjustified decision of the U.S. to impose steel and aluminum tariffs on the EU means that we are left with no other choice,” Malmström said.
Vicki Needham has more about the transatlantic trade tensions here.
Senate rejects Trump plan to claw back spending: The Senate on Wednesday narrowly rejected President Trump’s plan to claw back roughly $15 billion in spending approved by Congress earlier this year.
In a 48-50 vote, senators failed to discharge the measure from committee. A majority vote was needed.
GOP Sens. Richard Burr (N.C.) and Susan Collins (Maine) joined 48 members of the Democratic caucus in voting against bringing up the bill.
The Hill’s Jordain Carney tells us why here.
MARKET CHECK: Reuters: “The Nasdaq closed at a record on Wednesday, lifted by a climb in large-cap tech and consumer discretionary names, while the Dow and S&P 500 were hemmed in as concerns over an escalation in the U.S.-China trade skirmish simmered.
“The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 42.41 points, or 0.17 percent, to 24,657.8, the S&P 500 gained 4.73 points, or 0.17 percent, to 2,767.32 and the Nasdaq Composite added 55.93 points, or 0.72 percent, to 7,781.52.”
GOOD TO KNOW
- Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is calling for the panel to conduct a bipartisan investigation into the Donald J. Trump Foundation, after the New York attorney general filed a lawsuit last week seeking to dissolve the organization.
- Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday that the department next week will release a new tax-filing form the size of a postcard.
- President Trump’s plans to hit China with $200 billion more in tariffs is roiling global markets, angering business groups and putting lawmakers on edge in an important election year.
- White House budget director Mick Mulvaney on Wednesday defended the Trump administration’s controversial “zero tolerance” immigration policy that has led to the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents.
- Several GOP lawmakers said they and President Donald Trump made progress Wednesday toward a compromise that would let Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE Corp. stay in business while addressing lawmakers’ national security concerns, according to Bloomberg.
- New U.S. investment restrictions could restrict Chinese access to over 1,000 U.S. companies in technology and other sectors that the administration has deemed vital to U.S. national security, according to Politico.
- The world’s most-powerful central bankers warned that escalating international trade tensions have started damaging confidence among companies, threatening the global economic expansion.
ODDS AND ENDS
- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell met today with Kathy Kraninger, who President Trump nominated to lead the CFPB, per his office. McConnell said in a statement that Kraninger is “well-suited to continue on the course [Mulvaney] has charted toward transparency, accountability, and effectiveness within proper limits.”
- Op-Ed: Brian Knight, a senior research fellow and director of the Program on Financial Regulation at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, writes for The Hill on whether banks that engage in political activism are really ‘private’?
- A number of airlines on Wednesday asked federal officials not to use the carrier to transfer migrant children who have been separated from their families at the southern border.
- The publisher of National Enquirer has been subpoenaed for records related to its $150,000 payment to a former Playboy model for the right to her story that alleged she had an affair with President Trump.
Join us Tuesday, June 26 for “Mergers and Innovation: Measuring Performance and Patient Care,” featuring HHS Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas). Topics of discussion include how the landscape of health care delivery in the United States is undergoing a dramatic shift, its implications for health care industry stakeholders and patients and also the role of Congress in ensuring all Americans have access to quality care. RSVP Here.