The Week in Review
Competing approaches to resolving the highway funding challenge emerged in Congress last week, with the House and Senate taking different approaches to the issue. The House passed its version (H.R. 3038) in a 312-119 vote, providing $8 billion in funding for the Highway Trust Fund, which would allow it to continue operating through the end of 2015. Meanwhile, the Senate is aiming to pass a longer-term deal that would give $275 billion in highway funding over a period of six years. Both plans face significant hurdles; the House version includes unrelated offsets in tax adjustments drawing the criticism of conservatives and the Senate bill has been linked with the ongoing controversy over the Export-Import Bank.
Author: Thornrun
Financial Services Report
Our Take
Tuesday marks the 5th Anniversary of Dodd-Frank and it seems like little has changed, as Republicans continue to attack the law while Democrats defend it. With numerous event this week to commemorate the “wood anniversary” of financial reform it seemed appropriate to once again go into the time machine to dig up what we were writing about Dodd-Frank five year ago. The following is from the July 26, 2010 newsletter, and like so many analyses of the law’s impact, depending on which side of the aisle you sit on you may think it prescient or comical.
Health Policy Report
The Week in Review
Upon reconvening on Tuesday, both houses of Congress set to work on education bills that aim to provide a major update to the “No Child Left Behind” initiative that was a cornerstone of President George W. Bush’s domestic policy. The House version (H.R. 5) includes language that gives states much more flexibility in setting standards for teacher accountability, but per the bill’s language, those standards must include standardized test scores. While some Republicans rebelled against the bill, claiming that it did not allocate enough authority to the states, the measure passed on Wednesday by a narrow margin, 218-213. The Senate’s version (S. 1177) remains unfinished business and will be further debated this week.
Financial Services Report
This week marks the 5th Anniversary of the passage of Dodd-Frank. It also means we’ve been writing this newsletter for nearly six years. With all the nostalgia surrounding the 5th anniversary of the passage of Dodd-Frank we thought it might be fun to take a look back at what was on our mind what we were saying about Dodd-Frank Five years ago.
Health Policy Report
The Week in Review
The House and Senate were out last week for the Independence Day recess. Both chambers plan to reconvene tomorrow, Tuesday, July 7.
Financial Services Report
Milton Friedman once famously said that there is nothing so permanent as a temporary government program. Chairman Hensarling is a believer in Friedman, and while it is too early to say the Bank is dead, the Chairman must be smiling because the charter of the Export-Import Bank expires on Tuesday and Congress is not in session at the moment to extend. While proponents of the of bank are meeting at the White House on July 8th to discuss next steps both Democrats and Republicans have acknowledged that once the charter expired it would be more difficult to renew.
Health Policy Report
The Week in Review
The debate on whether or not to grant President Obama ‘fast-track’ authority in negotiating trade agreements finally reached its conclusion last week with the President and Congressional Republican leadership emerging victorious. After failing to pass the full trade package earlier this month, Republican leaders devised a plan to navigate around Democratic resistance by decoupling trade promotion authority (TPA) from trade adjustment assistance (TAA). In a quick succession of votes beginning Tuesday, the Senate approved TPA and TAA for the second time, but in two separate bills. The House then passed TPA before finally approving TAA (H.R. 1295) on Thursday by a resounding vote of 286-138, two weeks after similar legislation had been defeated. President Obama is expected to sign the trade package this week, giving the Administration greater authority in negotiating trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Rosenstock: GOP Appropriators to Pressure DOL on Fiduciary Rule
In an article published today in Investment News, Thorn Run's Jason Rosenstock comments on the political landscape surrounding the Department of Labor’s rule to raise investment advice standards for retirement accounts by cutting funding. “It's too early to tell what the ultimate fate of the riders will be, but they will stay in play throughout the appropriations process as the DOL continues to work on the rule,” Rosenstock explains in the article. He continues saying, “the riders are clearly a mark that Congress is going to keep an eye on what the department is doing on this,” adding that “it's going to keep pressure on the department to be responsive to some concerns that Congress and the industry have identified.”
Continue reading “Rosenstock: GOP Appropriators to Pressure DOL on Fiduciary Rule”
Health Policy Report
The Week in Review
Trade was once again at the forefront of discussion in Congress, as President Obama and Republican lawmakers sought to navigate “fast-track authority” around Democratic opposition in the House and Senate. The trade package seemed to be stalled after Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) was recently voted down in the House, but a new plan devised by Speaker John Boehner—to decouple TAA from the less contentious Trade-Promotion Authority (TPA)—revived the trade package and TPA passed the House with an unrelated bill on Thursday. TPA now heads to the Senate, where pro-trade Democrats must decide whether to approve the measure without the assurance that TAA will ever get through the House.
Financial Services Report
Looking Ahead
Near Term
- The House and Senate are in session before heading out of town for the July 4th recess but the legislative news of the week is what’s not on the agenda (hint it rhymes with Smex-Im).
- The House is set to take up another appropriations bill (Interior) as well as the Ratepayer Protection Act.
- The Senate will deal with getting TPA to the President’s desk and trying to find a way forward to move its own appropriations measures.
- The Supreme Court is set to announce major decisions on Obamacare and Marriage Equality.