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OVERNIGHT MONEY: House tackles budget and a variety of alternative proposals
WEDNESDAY'S BIG STORY:
Let the debates begin: The House on Wednesday will tackle a handful of budget proposals with plans to wrap up debate and votes on Thursday.
Lawmakers are set to discuss the usually bevy of budgets — all as alternatives to House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan's blueprint — including one drawn up by the Democratic leadership, another by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, one by the Congressional Black Caucus and one by the Republican Study Committee.
Don't forget there's also the budget from the White House and a separate proposal from Reps. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) and Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio), which offers the recommendations of the Bowles-Simpson commission.
The fiscal commission’s recommendations, authored by former Clinton Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson (Wyo.), would reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years through a combination of spending cuts and revenue increases from tax reform.
The Cooper-LaTourette vote will be an important test of the appetite for a grand deficit compromise, while the vote on the Obama budget could be embarrassing for the White House, especially if it fails to pick up an abundance of Democratic votes.
LaTourette says he promised the architects of the proposal that the House wouldn’t “embarrass their brand” when the measure comes up for a floor vote on Wednesday.
House passage of the plan would be a surprise, but supporters are trying gather up some votes from both parties.
The RSC proposal cuts spending by $7.5 trillion, compared with Obama's plan over 10 years, and balances the budget in five years, four years earlier than last year’s RSC budget.
Last year Democrats mostly voted "present" instead of "no" on the proposal. Worried that the RSC budget would pass, GOP leaders had to whip against the plan. It still got 119 votes, with 120 Republicans voting against it.
House Democrats have a plan that aligns closely to the White House's budget.
Sponsored by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), senior Democrat on the House Budget Committee, the $3.6 trillion proposal is not expected to pass, but nonetheless provides the Democrats with a comprehensive plan from which to distinguish their policy priorities from those of Republicans this election year.
Let the debate begin.
WHAT ELSE TO WATCH FOR
Battle lines, drawn: The House Ways and Means Committee is set to mark up a measure that would give small businesses — defined, in this instance, as any company with fewer than 500 employees — a 20 percent tax cut.
Both parties have expressed an interest in giving tax relief to small businesses, but that doesn't necessarily mean the Wednesday markup will be without its share of disagreements.
Democrats have criticized the House GOP measure, saying that it gives a tax break to hedge fund executives, pro sports teams and other businesses that aren't in need. Senate Democrats have countered with a proposal to tie tax relief to added payroll and to allow smaller companies to fully deduct the costs of large purchases.
Double dose: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is pulling double duty on Capitol Hill tomorrow. In the morning, he'll defend the Treasury's fiscal 2013 budget request before House appropriators. In the afternoon, he's got an encore performance before Senate appropriators about his department's efforts to fight foreclosures and the escalating level of student loan debt.
Capital idea: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will hold its sixth annual Capital Markets Summit on Wednesday, where business types will gather to discuss anything and everything financial — expect Dodd-Frank to figure in heavily on the conversation. On the policy side of things, Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) will offer a Capitol perspective on matters. On the regulatory side, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray will step into the lion's den, while Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler will defend his agency's efforts to curb risky derivatives in a post-meltdown world.
MF meltdown: The House Financial Services subcommittee on Oversight will hold its third hearing on the collapse of the MF Global, the financial firm once headed by Jon Corzine, the former New Jersey governor and senator. While Corzine will not be appearing this time, lawmakers will be hearing from the company's general counsel, chief financial officer and a number of other top officials about what exactly happened when the firm collapsed. In particular, lawmakers will be keying in on how up to $1.6 billion in customer funds, which should have been kept segregated, managed to disappear in the frantic last few days, and who knew how it could have happened.
Meanwhile, a House Agriculture subcommittee will consider a pair of bills that would alter new Dodd-Frank regulations on financial derivatives.
Going postal: Postal reform fans will have to wait a couple more weeks, it seems. The Senate turned aside a procedural vote on a bipartisan postal bill on Tuesday, which allowed them to continue debating a proposal to rein in the oil industry's use of certain tax breaks.
That turn of events means that the Senate will likely take up the postal bill in mid-April, once Congress returns to Washington from a two-week break.
Lawmakers are hoping to finish off postal reform efforts by May 15, when a USPS moratorium on closing facilities would end. But some Democratic senators have pushed to change their chamber's postal bill, saying the measure could do more to protect delivery standards and rural interests.
"We're going to continue to work to hear our colleagues, to hear their concerns, and to see how those concerns might be addressed," Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), a lead sponsor of the Senate postal bill. "At the end of the day, though, we have a Postal Service that needs to be right-sized for the 21st century."
Sizing up waste: A Senate panel on Wednesday will examine how to eliminate waste and fraud in federal programs. Federal agencies made an estimated $115 billion in improper payments in fiscal 2011. The hearing will include discussions of the implementation of existing improper payments laws, the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act and additional steps and initiatives to curb improper payments.
Let's team up: The House Small Business Committee will hold a hearing on how partnerships between large and small businesses can promote job growth. Increasingly, large and small businesses are partnering to access the research, innovations and services they need to be successful.
“More and more, large and small businesses are partnering together to better create added value, jobs and economic growth,” said Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.).
“The goal of this hearing is to learn about these types of partnerships, examine the benefits for both the companies and the economies in which they are deeply embedded, and find out ways Congress can help foster their creation.”
BREAKING NEWS
Jobs bill gets the nod: The House on Tuesday approved the final, Senate-passed version of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, sending the non-controversial bill, aimed at helping small companies raise capital, to the White House for President Obama's signature.
The bill was approved last week with a single Senate amendment that requires stricter reporting requirements for companies that obtain capital from "crowdfunding," the practice of using the Internet to get many small investments.
Holding pattern: Unable to overcome Democratic opposition, House Republicans have scrapped a planned vote on a short-term extension of federal highway programs for the second straight day.
The House GOP leadership had called a vote for Tuesday evening on a 60-day extension of authorization for the programs, which expires on Saturday. But they pulled the legislation after Democrats indicated they would oppose the measure.
Republicans were planning to hold the vote under a suspension of the rules requiring a two-thirds majority, so Democratic votes were needed.
Sleeping easier: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is sleeping better now than he did a year ago, but says the economy still has "a long way to go."
"Things are ... moving in the right direction," he said in an interview with Diane Sawyer that will air Tuesday night on ABC's "World News."
"So yeah, I'm sleeping a little better. But again, I think it's really important not to be complacent ... We have a long way to go."
Bernanke also said rising gasoline prices are a “moderate” risk to the economy that could slightly hinder growth rates, but nonetheless predicted they will not stall the ongoing recovery.
That's a good one: Democrats on Tuesday had a message for House Republicans who are urging their party to take credit for the improvement in the economy: Good luck with that.
“That proposition is equally valid to them taking credit for the beautiful weather we had this March in Washington, D.C.,” Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) said Tuesday.
“Instead of snow, we had 75-degree temperatures and sunny skies, and I think the Republicans were equally responsible for that as they are the economic data.”
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
MBA Mortgage Index: The Mortgage Bankers Association releases its weekly report on mortgage application volume.
Durable Orders: The Department of Commerce releases its report that measures the dollar volume of orders, shipments and unfilled orders of durable goods — goods whose intended lifespan is three years or more. Orders are considered a leading indicator of manufacturing activity, and the market often moves on this report despite the volatility and large revisions that make it a less than perfect indicator.
WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
— US, Russia leaders urge Congress to provide path to open trade
— Democrats skeptical of USPS push to sponsor own healthcare program
— Report: US exports to China surpass $100 billion
— Report: Lawmakers pushing for weaker Volcker Rule reap Wall Street cash
— Housing market about three years away from full recovery
— House gets clean bill of health on financial statements
— Consumer confidence drops amid higher gas prices
— Home prices slide at beginning of the year
— Sanders, Dems push oil speculation vote on tax bill
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