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Today’s Big Deal: Lawmakers are clashing with the White House over their effort to block Russian oil imports to the U.S. We’ll also look at the Fed chief’s most recent inflation comments and the growing list of Russian officials facing sanctions.
But first, is Jon Stewart planning a run for office?
For The Hill, we’re Sylvan Lane, Aris Folley and Karl Evers-Hillstrom. Reach us at slane@digital-release.thehill.com or @SylvanLane, afolley@digital-release.thehill.com or @ArisFolley and kevers@digital-release.thehill.com or @KarlMEvers.
Let’s get to it.
White House knocks down import ban talk
The White House on Thursday knocked down talk of banning Russian oil imports, warning doing so could further spike the already high price of gas for Americans after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) threw her support behind the idea.
“Our objective and the president’s objective has been to maximize impact on President Putin and Russia while minimizing impact to us and our allies and partners,” press secretary Jen Psaki said at a briefing with reporters.
“We don’t have a strategic interest in reducing the global supply of energy and that would raise prices at the gas pump for the American people around the world because it would reduce the supply available,” she continued. “It also has the potential to pad the pockets of President Putin, which is exactly what we are not trying to do.”
- On Thursday, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) proposed legislation to ban Russian energy imports, calling it a counter to Russia “weaponizing” energy.
- Manchin criticized the White House over its position and argued that the U.S. needs to do more to ramp up domestic production amid the Ukraine crisis.
- Russia is the world’s largest oil exporter, but the U.S. gets less than 10 percent of its oil exports from the country.
Still, any kind of export ban would dramatically raise gas prices. The White House is wary of further driving up high gas prices, which have hurt Biden’s approval and Democrats’ midterm chances.
Psaki added that the Biden administration has been taking steps to try to “degrade Russia’s status as an energy supplier over time” by sanctioning the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and surging liquefied natural gas to parts of Europe.
The Hill’s Brett Samuels has more on the White House position here.
BATTLING INFLATION
Powell: ‘Overheated’ job market can withstand rate hikes
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell expressed confidence Thursday the central bank would be able to hike interest rates to fight inflation without derailing a historically strong labor market.
- In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, Powell acknowledged the Fed misjudged how long inflation would rise, but said the bank could still bring it down without upending job gains.
- Powell’s comments come roughly two weeks before the Fed is expected to raise interest rates at the conclusion of its monetary policy meeting March 15-16.
Powell called the labor market “overheated,” pointing to record ratio of job openings for unemployed workers and a historic rate of workers quitting their current gigs for ones with better compensation, working conditions or opportunities.
“We have substantial excess demand,” Powell said, referring to the steady growth in consumer spending above pre-pandemic levels, even as prices rose 7.5 percent annually in January, according to Labor Department data.
“There’s a lot that we could do to gradually bring demand back down to where demand and supply are more in sync and without risking damage,” he said.
Sylvan has more here.
UNDER SANCTIONS
Here are the Russians sanctioned by the US
After a week into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the White House continues to add names of Russian oligarchs to the list of sanctions imposed on Russia.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday more sanctions against the Russians will be implemented due to the invasion, highlighting how the administration selects individuals to be sanctioned.
“One of the big factors is, of course, the proximity to President Putin. We want him to feel the squeeze. We want people around him to feel the squeeze,” Psaki said.
The U.S. has gone after Russian politicians, wealthy individuals and their families in an attempt to deter Putin’s aggression against Ukraine. With the latest announcements, at least 26 Russians, excluding family members, have been sanctioned by the U.S.
The Hill’s Lexi Lonas breaks down the full roster of sanctioned individuals.
BORDER BUDGET
Key Democrat says negotiators making ‘progress’ in border wall talks
Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security chair Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said on Thursday that negotiators have made progress in funding talks over the nation’s border wall, as lawmakers work quickly to hammer out sticking points in spending negotiations before a looming shutdown deadline next week.
Murphy, whose panel handles appropriations for barrier funds, told reporters on Thursday afternoon that wall funding remains “one of the outstanding issues” negotiators are continuing to sort out as they seek to complete work on a sprawling spending omnibus package for fiscal 2022 by a Mar. 11 deadline.
“We’ve made progress in the last 24 hours. We were stuck for a little while but we’ve been trading some constructive paper in the last 24 hours … I’m hopeful that we will not be the sticking point,” said Murphy.
- Last year, Democrats outlined plans to rescind nearly $2 billion in funding for the border wall that was previously allocated by Congress.
- Democrats have pushed for the funds to be repurposed for border security technology, including IT modernization efforts, expanded train capacity for Customs and Border Protection personnel and environmental mitigation efforts.
Aris breaks down the budget debate here.
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Good to Know
The Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday advanced President Biden’s nominees to the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission in two tie votes split along party lines.
Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) returned to the Senate before the vote, after roughly a month-long absence while recovering from a stroke, giving Democrats the votes they needed to push forward the long-delayed nominees.
Here’s what else we have our eye on:
- Florida’s state House has passed a measure to create a state climate resilience office, with only a single nay vote against the move.
- Tesla founder Elon Musk has invited the United Auto Workers union to hold a unionization vote at the company’s California headquarters.
- Tech workers at The New York Times voted to unionize, becoming the largest active tech union in the country.
- Travel software company Sabre Corp. terminated its distribution agreement with Aeroflot on Thursday, further isolating the Russian state-owned airline from the rest of the world following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading and check out The Hill’s Finance page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you Friday.