Ex-Im Bank Expected To Pass Senate
"Export-Import Bank supporters aim for show of strength in Senate" reports The Hill: "Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) are scheduled this week to unveil legislation that would reauthorize the bank, and Democratic leaders have suggested it could reach the floor quickly. With the Senate bill expected to pass, Ex-Im supporters are focused on the margin of victory ... Ex-Im supporters are banking on Senate Republicans to back the Manchin-Kirk bill to provide cover for House Republicans to support reauthorization. Perhaps the biggest prize would be Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has softened his stance on Ex-Im in recent weeks after voting against the charter in 2012."
Sen. Roy Blunt 2nd Republican to announce support. Bloomberg: "'It serves a good purpose,' Blunt said about the bank in an interview in Washington. 'It allows us to be more competitive in the international marketplace, and serves lots of businesses.' Senator Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican, also backs the plan. Manchin said yesterday that his goal is to have five Republican co-sponsors for his proposal."
Broad Coalition Backs Highway Trust Fund
Business and labor team up to pressure Congress to save Highway Trust Fund. NYT: "Ned Monroe, the National Association of Manufacturers senior vice president for external relations, said business groups like his, the Building America’s Future coalition, and labor unions will begin a multipronged advocacy effort this week. Over the weekend, Building America’s Future launched a smartphone app, I’m Stuck, with the U.S. Travel Association, which allows users to email their member of Congress during a traffic jam, subway or airport delay or packed transit ride to report on their progress — or lack thereof, with a picture if they want."
Failure means 28% funding cut for states. The Hill: "'For all states ... this means we’ll have to stop reimbursing them as they send in their bills for transportation projects,' [Transportation Sec Anthony] Foxx wrote. 'Instead, we’ll begin a new process of slower and lower payments ... on average, states will see a 28 percent cut in their funding ... If states don’t know if federal funding will be available — or how much — they’ll start to pull projects off the books and halt construction.'"
WH Moves To Solve Border Crisis
WH says most minors trying to cross border don't have legal basis to stay. Reuters: "The strong warning came as the White House is expected to lay out on Tuesday what it wants in emergency funding from the U.S. Congress to deal with the flood of children. The money would go toward more detention facilities to house the children and additional immigration judges and asylum officials to expedite hearings ... The spending bill could face some rough going in Congress ... Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters any measure should be paid for with cuts to other government programs."
Request for money won't be linked to new legislation that could speed deportation. AP: "That decision comes after immigration advocates objected strongly to administration proposals to speed thousands of unaccompanied minors back home to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, where many face gang violence ... The White House told Congress last week that it would seek 'additional authority' for the Homeland Security secretary to quickly return the minors back home. Immigration advocates understood this to mean that the children, who currently have the right to a hearing before an immigration judge, would lose that right and instead would have to make it through an initial screening with a Border Patrol agent ... The White House says the plan is to speed up the processing of Central American border crossers without taking away their due process."
Federal appeals court strikes down AZ immigrant drivers' license policy. NYT: "A federal appeals court on Monday blocked Arizona’s policy of denying driver’s licenses to young immigrants who have received work permits and avoided deportation under an Obama administration program. The court said it could find 'no legitimate state interest' to justify treating those immigrants any different from other noncitizens whose work permits the state had traditionally accepted as proof of authorized presence in the United States."
Breakfast Sides
NYT explores Hillary Clinton's challenge navigating Wall Street ties and populist wave: " In her talks, she says it is unproductive to vilify the industry, and she avoids the kind of language that puts off financial executives, as when President Obama referred to 'fat cat' bankers in 2009 ... A spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, Nick Merrill, declined to describe her positions on a variety of current regulatory and Wall Street issues but said in an email: 'Reducing inequality and increasing upward mobility has been an uninterrupted pursuit of hers through every job she’s held, and it continues to this day in her work at the Clinton Foundation.'"
WH aims to improve funding for poor school districts. McClatchy: "The administration will require states to submit plans by April 2015 and will spend $4.2 million to launch a new network to provide states and districts support to put the plans into action. It also will publish results to show where highly skilled teachers are working in high-need schools, and where these schools have inexperienced teachers or those teaching in situations they weren’t prepared to handle."
