Obama, Warren Team Up Against Wall Street
"Obama picks a fight with Wall Street banks" over retirement planner rule. The Hill: "With Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) by his side, Obama announced Monday at AARP’s Washington headquarters that he is moving ahead with new regulations on financial advisers that are vehemently opposed by the business community [who warn] it would radically change the industry’s payment system and make it harder for low-income Americans to obtain financial advice ... The proposed regulations are expected to broaden the definition of 'fiduciary' to cover more investment advisers, creating new disclosure requirements and forcing more brokers to work for annual fees rather than commissions."
Evidence of rising Warren influence. Politico: "Some liberals, such as former House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and former Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), also had concerns with the Labor Department’s 2010 version of the proposed rule, which was retracted in 2011. Massachusetts is the home of some large mutual fund companies that were concerned with the proposal ... [Now] Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, a Democrat who is sometimes friendly with Wall Street, also attended the event ... 'Booker’s presence there suggests the party is far more unified on this than it was before,' said Robert Borosage, founder of the Institute for America’s Future..."
"A Student-Debt Revolt Begins" reports The New Yorker: "In the fall of 2013, Mallory Heiney ... enrolled in classes at a for-profit college called Everest Institute ... after less than a year, she said, her instructors stopped showing up. Corinthian Colleges, the company that owned Everest, had admitted that its finances were in trouble, and that it expected to go out of business; it later said it would shut down several campuses ... On Monday, Heiney and fourteen other people who took out loans to attend Corinthian announced that they are going on a 'debt strike,' and will stop repaying their loans ... The strike is the result of an alliance between the students and an offshoot of the Occupy movement known as the Debt Collective ..."
McConnell Tries To Avoid Homeland Security Shutdown
Sen. Majority Leader McConnell tries to separate funding bill from immigration battle. Roll Call: "...McConnell has begun to pivot toward a new strategy to separate funding for the Department of Homeland Security from the GOP’s plan to roll back President Barack Obama’s immigration actions [, offering] a standalone bill focused on the 2014 immigration actions alone ... Michael Steel, a spokesman for Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, welcomed McConnell’s latest maneuvering."
Move would be coupled with short-term funding bill for Homeland Security. Politico: "Senior Republicans said privately ... that the party may have no choice now but to fund the agency on a short-term basis. The length of a so-called continuing resolution isn’t clear, but McConnell plans to discuss the matter with GOP senators in a closed-door lunch on Tuesday ... it faces an uphill climb in the House, where it is unclear if conservatives will view the GOP’s evolving tactics as a run toward political cover."
Rep. Nita Lowey warns of consequences if there is a shutdown. USA Today: "...Lowey said new funding was urgently needed so the agency could adequately respond to terrorist threats and pay for disaster training and equipment for the nation's first responders [who] stood to lose out on millions of Homeland Security grants ... some of which is used for training firefighters for hazardous material incidents ... some Republicans have argued that because the large majority of agency staff would keep working, albeit without getting paid, the harmful effects of a shutdown were being exaggerated."
WH appeals to court to lift stay reports Reuters.
Christie Loses Pension Case
Big union win over Gov. Christie in pension battle. NYT: "...a New Jersey judge ruled on Monday that he violated state law when he declined to make the full payment into the state’s pension system for public employees last year and ordered him to find a way to fund it now ... [She] also ordered the administration to pay the legal fees of the several public sector unions that sued to force the payments."
Christie still determined to cut pension benefits. Bloomberg: "[Christie] will present a spending plan Tuesday that seeks to contribute $1.3 billion to New Jersey’s government-employee pensions for the year starting July 1, according to a figure released by his office. That’s less than half the $2.9 billion it was scheduled to pay ... The state’s failure to set aside enough money to cover employee benefits has contributed to a record eight credit-rating downgrades under Christie..."
But Christie may have reached a compromise with teachers unions. NYT: "In his annual budget address Tuesday in Trenton, Mr. Christie will disclose that he and the teachers’ union have spent weeks in secret talks aimed at closing the billion-dollar deficit that involves the teachers’ retirement and health benefits."
Breakfast Sides
European Commission signals approval of Greek plan for extending bailout. Bloomberg: "The agreement permits Greece to lower previously agreed upon targets on a primary budget surplus, which doesn’t include interest payments on debt. That could give Tsipras some room to at least come good on some pre-election pledges. In return, though, the Greek government will refrain from unilateral action that may risk budget goals and not annul most economic reforms included in the bailout agreements."
Sen. Bernie Sanders thinks House has the best chance to block trade deals. WSJ: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) said he expected a deal to ease congressional passage of trade agreements would pass the Senate, despite his own opposition ... [But] he held out hope that the measure might not clear the House.
