Happy Monday and welcome back to On The Money. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.
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THE BIG DEAL– Lawmakers pile on the spending in $1.4 trillion deal: Lawmakers added $24.7 billion in emergency and “off-book” spending to a nearly $1.4 trillion package as they sought to settle differences and finish the congressional appropriations bills for the fiscal year.
The White House and Congress had reached a $1.37 trillion deal in July that increased defense spending by $22 billion and domestic spending by $12 billion.
But the final deal brings the sum total to $1.394 trillion, and includes emergency funding for natural disasters, the 2020 Census, medical funding and other priorities.
The plus-ups have earned consternation from deficit watchers who warned about the deficit-financed spending increases. The deficit is on track to surpass $1 trillion for the first time since 2012 this year. The Hill’s Niv Elis breaks down the massive spending bill here.
What’s inside the bipartisan funding deal:
- Border security: The bill provides $1.375 billion for border barriers, the same amount in last year’s bill. Similar restrictions on the specifications and location of the barrier are also included in this year’s package.
- Gun research: Federal agencies will receive $25 million from Congress to study gun violence, a major win for Democrats who have long pushed for dedicated funding to research the issue.
- Pay raises: 3.1 percent for each civilian or military federal employee
- Election security: The bill creates $425 million in election security grants.
- ObamaCare taxes: The spending deal repeals three major taxes that had helped fund the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansion: a 40 percent tax on generous “Cadillac” health plans, the 2.3 percent medical device tax and the health insurance tax.
- Miners’ benefits: Tens of thousands of coal miners will have their health benefits and pensions preserved as part of the year-end government spending deal.
What comes next:
- The House is expected to vote on the bills in two packages on Tuesday before sending them to the Senate for passage and President Trump’s signature ahead of Friday’s shutdown deadline.
- One measure will include the Defense, Homeland Security, Commerce-Justice-Science and Financial Services spending packages, and will cost $860.3 billion.
- The second will contain the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education, Agriculture, State and Foreign Operations, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, Transportation-Housing and Urban Development, Energy-Water, Interior-Environment and Legislative Branch spending bills and will cost $534.4 billion.
LEADING THE DAY
Trump-Pelosi trade deal creates strife among progressives: Progressive lawmakers and some labor unions are facing internal divisions over whether to support President Trump’s proposed update to a North American trade agreement.
House Democratic leaders this past week announced a deal to pass Trump’s revamp of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) after six months of intense, secretive negotiations.
- Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democrats touted victories in securing tougher labor law enforcement procedures in Mexico, tightening environmental restrictions and eliminating legal protections for certain drugs in defiance of the powerful pharmaceutical lobby.
- Those concessions were enough to secure the support of the AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. labor federation and a fierce critic of the original NAFTA.
- When AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka hailed “an agreement that working people can proudly support,” he cleared the way for Democrats to back Trump’s deal known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
But that doesn’t mean all Democrats and unions are going along happily. I explain why here.
The background: Pelosi voiced early interest in revising NAFTA with Trump and fostered a strong relationship with U.S Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, the top White House trade negotiator.
Even as Pelosi condemned Trump’s conduct as president, she insisted that Democrats would remain on a “path to yes” as long as the White House negotiated in good faith.
Striking a deal with Trump on a signature issue was seen as a way for Pelosi to give political cover to vulnerable centrist Democrats worried about an impeachment backlash in 2020. But much of her caucus was reluctant to move forward if it meant spurning organized labor, a pillar of the Democratic base.
Trump, Boris Johnson discuss ‘ambitious free trade agreement’ President Trump and Boris Johnson spoke Monday about negotiating a free trade agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom.
The call took place days after Johnson’s Conservative Party won a significant majority in the British Parliament, a development that all but assures the United Kingdom’s so-called “Brexit” withdrawal from the European Union.
“The Prime Minister spoke with President Trump, who congratulated him on the result of the General Election,” a spokesperson for the British prime minister’s office said in a statement.
“They discussed the huge importance of the relationship between the UK and US, and looked forward to continued close cooperation on issues such as security and trade, including the negotiation of an ambitious free trade agreement,” the statement continued.
A White House spokesman later said the two leaders “reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening cooperation on a range of issues, including the negotiation of a United States-United Kingdom free trade agreement.”
GOOD TO KNOW
- Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) released a proposal on Sunday that’s designed to be a compromise on a year-end tax package.
- Goldman Sachs announced Monday that it plans to invest $750 billion over the next decade toward fighting climate change.
- The Democratic chairmen of two key House committees are questioning whether the government flouted “appropriate” procedures when it recently approved the $26 billion merger between T-Mobile and Sprint, green-lighting one of the largest telecom deals in recent history.
- Politico: “How labor beat Mexico on trade”
- The New York Times: “The economic losses sustained during a bruising 19-month trade war will not be easy to make up.”
- CNBC: “Elizabeth Warren: The government listens too much ‘to rich guys who don’t want to pay taxes'”
ODDS AND ENDS
- The House on Monday passed legislation that would bar the government from buying telecommunications equipment from companies deemed to be national security threats, such as Chinese telecom giant Huawei.
- Jack Lew, who served as chief of staff and Treasury secretary under former President Obama, announced in a CNBC interview on Monday that he’s endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race.