|
Capital Journal
|
Good morning from the WSJ's Washington bureau.
|
|
|
Trump's Day: President Trump meets with Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez. Later, he speaks at the Major County Sheriffs and Major Cities Chiefs Association conference.
Middle East Conference: The U.S. and Poland jointly host a ministerial to promote a "future of peace and security in the Middle East." Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are in Warsaw.
Stocks: U.S. stocks surged yesterday as optimism that negotiators were making progress on a trade agreement with China eased investors’ trepidation.
|
|
|
|
President Trump is expected to sign a border-security deal that would keep the government open past Friday and avoid a second government shutdown, report Rebecca Ballhaus and Peter Nicholas this morning. The deal is believed to allocate $1.38 billion for 55 miles of physical barriers at the southern border, falling short of Mr. Trump's demands for funding a wall. One administration official cautioned that no final decisions had been made.
-
Yesterday, he sent mixed signals on the deal reached by lawmakers, reported Rebecca Ballhaus and Kristina Peterson.
-
Some conservative lawmakers and commentators have bashed the deal, saying it didn’t have sufficient funding for border barriers.
-
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R., Ala.) indicated there would be no changes to the deal. “We want to do what we agreed on last night in principle and reduce it to the language we believe it calls for and vote on it," he said yesterday.
In the talks, Democrats largely came up short in their quest to limit the detention of immigrants as part of the bipartisan border deal. But the arcane math over beds left lawmakers citing different numbers and activists on both sides crying foul, report Louise Radnofsky, Kristina Peterson and Natalie Andrews.
|
|
|
Chinese and U.S. negotiators are focusing on producing a broad outline of a deal for their presidents to clinch, Lingling Wei and Bob Davis report. Beijing so far has remained reluctant to give ground on issues it sees as crucial to maintaining the Communist Party’s rule.
-
If they don’t agree by the deadline, tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods will jump to 25% from 10% at 12:01 a.m., March 2.
-
Mr. Trump, asked if the March 1 deadline would stand, said, "If we're close to a deal ... I could see myself letting that slide for a little while."
The new version of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which the U.S. hammered out with Canada and Mexico last year, is threatened by a sharp divide between congressional Democrats and the Trump administration, report William Mauldin and Vivian Salama.
-
Democrats want changes to ensure Mexico allows its workers to form unions freely and enforces environmental protections.
|
|
Lobbying outlays by the American steel industry jumped 20% last year to the highest level in at least two decades. The effectiveness of the steel lobby has led to counter efforts by manufacturers who rely on steel, who say tariffs are raising their costs, reports William Mauldin.
-
Major steel companies pushed the Trump administration to impose tariffs under Section 232 of U.S. trade law, leading to higher prices in the U.S., higher profits and plans to expand capacity.
|
|
|
|
Government Shutdowns Might Be a Thing of the Past
|
|
|
|
Congressional negotiators reached a bipartisan border security deal on Monday night. Could this be the deal that puts an end to government shutdowns once and for all?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Democrats Worry 'Green New Deal' Not Ripe for Vote
|
|
|
|
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said Tuesday he plans to bring the “Green New Deal” up in the chamber, jarring Democrats who worry that a vote could expose a rift in the party about the proposal.
“I’ve noted with great interest the Green New Deal,” Mr. McConnell said. “We’re going to be voting on that in the Senate, we’ll give everybody an opportunity to go on record and see how they feel about the Green New Deal.”
Released last week by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D., Mass.), the Green New Deal is a wide-ranging proposal to end the dependence of the U.S. economy on fossil fuel resources within 10 years. Many Senate Democrats running for president, including Sens. Cory Booker (D., N.J.), Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.), Kamala Harris (D., Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) and Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) quickly signed onto the resolution, catapulting it into the national conversation.
Republicans have pilloried the Green New Deal, which also calls for guaranteeing every American a job and health care, as a “socialist fantasy.” Members of the GOP see the proposal as an opportunity to castigate the entire Democratic party as radical.
The vast majority of Congressional Democrats haven't signed onto the plan, and scheduling a vote on the Green New Deal could also put Democratic divisions over the idea on unflattering display. Mr. Markey denounced a potential vote on the resolution, unaccompanied by hearings or expert testimony, as “sabotage" by Republicans.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), who hasn't endorsed the idea, said that Republicans should offer their own plan for climate change when asked about Mr. McConnell’s intent.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.), one of the co-sponsors of the Green New Deal in the Senate, said that some senators may be concerned about closely affiliating with Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a professed socialist and the author of the resolution in the House.
“Why would we be against creating a whole bunch of jobs and saving the planet from destruction? You don’t have to endorse everything the House author stands for economically by voting for the Green New Deal,” he said.
|
|
|
|
Divisions over Iran are hindering the administration’s efforts to build consensus with NATO allies on Middle East policy, report Sune Engel Rasmussen and Jessica Donati. The divide is on display as officials from some 60 countries gather for a conference in Poland.
-
“U.S. policy on Iran is so maximalist, so confrontational,” said Ellie Geranmayeh, a fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations, while “the Europeans have tried to maintain a strong political track.”
|
|
Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan met Iraq’s prime minister yesterday, during a surprise stop in Baghdad, in what appeared to be an effort to smooth ties after comments by President Trump provoked a backlash among Iraqis against the U.S. military presence.
|
|
|
|
The number of available jobs exceeded unemployed Americans by 1 million at end of 2018, according to the Labor Department, pointing to an extremely tight labor market. That's the highest level of available jobs on record dating back to 2000, Eric Morath reports.
|
|
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell addressed the uneven nature of the economic expansion. Speaking at Mississippi Valley State University, he said the Mississippi Delta is among the regions where the Fed is studying policies to reverse poverty, Paul Kiernan and Nick Timiraos report.
|
|
Americans are borrowing more for cars and less for houses, according to a report released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The shift could be due to the sagging housing market, which slumped last year after several years of strong sales and rising prices, reports David Harrison.
|
|
The recent government shutdown damaged the IRS, according to its in-house watchdog. IRS employees are working through more than five million pieces of correspondence and tens of thousands of backlogged audit responses and amended returns, Richard Rubin reports.
|
|
|
A mesh device used in women’s pelvic surgery is being evaluated by an FDA panel, Thomas M. Burton reports. The product, used to treat pelvic organ prolapse, has led to billions of dollars in damages over crippling conditions and multiple reoperations in many patients.
-
The federal agency issued a public health notice in 2008 advising of serious complications associated with the mesh in some cases. By 2011, it updated the advisory to say that these complications aren’t rare.
|
|
|
-
The potential presidential bid of former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is getting so much attention because he has so much money, which is a shortcut to legitimacy in American politics. (Vox)
-
A new Washington Post poll shows that 52% of Americans disapprove of the way President Trump has handled the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller, and 65% say Congress should impeach the president if the Mueller report finds he tried to obstruct the investigation. (Washington Post)
-
Rep. Ilhan Omar's apology for her statements about Israel and the role of Jews in American politics doesn't mean the end of her underlying anti-Semitism. (Commentary)
|
|
|
This newsletter is a production of the WSJ Washington bureau. Our newsletter editors are Tim Hanrahan, Kate Milani, Troy McCullough and Daniel Nasaw. Send feedback to capitaljournal@wsj.com.
|
|