The House passed a budget resolution for the remainder of FY17 this afternoon on a near party-line vote, 227-198. Adoption of the resolution follows Senate passage of the measure yesterday 51-48 with only Sen. Rand Paul crossing party lines — it projects a $9.1 trillion debt increase FY17-FY26 — and reaffirms the GOP’s intent to repeal Obamacare …
At the heart of the GOP economic legislative agenda for 2017 is tax reform. Both the incoming Trump administration and leaders on the Hill have signaled its centrality. Treasury Secretary-designate Steve Mnuchin has said that tax reform will be introduced within 90 days of inauguration. Speaker Paul Ryan, former chair of House Ways and Means, …
The year is winding down slowly and it effectively came to an end today for monetary policy. For years, the Fed pursued an unprecedented policy of accommodation almost out of necessity while a gridlocked Congress declined to fight the recession with fiscal policy tools. Now that a full-scale economic recovery (measured by jobs, not wages …
Late Friday night, the Senate adopted the FY17 Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government through April 28 that passed the House the day before. The Senate vote came only 62 minutes before the government would otherwise have gone into partial shutdown. The 114th Congress is now in the books. Below we review the route to passage of its last …
Fiscal Policy — FY17 Funded through April (Dec. 12) Read More »
Today the House passed the FY17 CR to extend the budget through until April 28. The 114th Congress is almost in the books, pending only the Senate vote on final passage of the CR, itself pending only the outcome of legislative negotiations regarding a mine worker protection provision sought by Sens. Manchin, Brown, et al. We’ll cover the …
A couple of hours ago, House GOP leaders released a draft FY17 Continuing Resolution — must-pass legislation if the federal government is to avoid a shut-down midnight on Friday. The House will take up the bill as early as Thursday, aiming to get it to the Senate by the Friday deadline. Below is an outline of …
As he begins his victory tour tonight in Ohio, President-elect Trump appears on the cusp of a deal with a large Indiana manufacturing firm that would keep 500-1000 furnace-making jobs in the state. What’s the deal? Is it a model for job creation and a tool for the four percent GDP growth that Trump is aiming …
—————————————– Today, President-elect Trump announced that he will tap Steven Mnuchin for Treasury Secretary. Not a particular surprise — chair of the Trump campaign’s fundraising team, member of Yale’s Scull & Bones, and an early favorite for the position — Mnuchin and his political and policy views are nevertheless mostly a mystery outside his Wall Street …
Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary Nominee (Nov. 30) Read More »
The House will vote tomorrow on H.R. 6392, the “Systematic Risk Designation Improvement Risk of 2016,” a bill to repeal Title I of the Dodd-Frank Act, thereby removing over $4 trillion in bank assets from heightened Fed supervisory scrutiny. The bill, while unlikely to pass this Congress, is a harbinger of efforts and arguments and eventually …
Mike & Co., The mandate that President-elect Trump claims he has on banking regulations is to “dismantle” the Dodd-Frank Act. Whether this is a credible threat, hyperbole, or something in-between depends entirely on what the new administration sends Congress. But we have baseline legislation comprised of significant Dodd-Frank revisions that already have the support of the …
