Four Days Until Government Shutdown

Democrats balked over the legislation, noting they did not sign off on the proposal from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

“Senator McConnell repaid our good faith by trying to jam us with a bill we haven’t seen and blocking amendment votes,” said Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Democrats are demanding that funds to help the city of Flint, Mich., deal with its tainted drinking water be included in the 10-week spending bill. They argue it’s unfair for the stopgap measure to set aside funds to help flood victims in Louisiana, West Virginia and Maryland, but not Flint. The Hill’s Cristina Marcos and Jordain Carney get us up to speed: https://bit.ly/2dxnHiu.

Heritage Action for America said Monday it would “key vote” the funding bill on its scorecard, meaning a vote in favor will be held against a lawmaker. The initial vote on the bill will be held in the Senate Tuesday, with just four days left to avoid a government shutdown.

While the bill was crafted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Heritage said it “falls far short of conservative expectations.”

The bill, known as a continuing resolution, would fund the government through Dec. 9. That timeline that has been fiercely opposed by conservative groups like Heritage and Freedom Partners because they oppose any funding deals during a lame-duck session after the election. The Hill’s Sarah Ferris breaks it down: https://bit.ly/2d4F9Ir.

The Republican presidential nominee’s proposed cuts to individual income and payroll taxes would cost $2.1 trillion; his plans to cut corporate taxes would cost $2.4 trillion; and his plan to repeal the estate tax would cost $300 billion, according to the analysis.

CTJ Director Bob McIntyre said that while Trump’s revised plan costs less than his original plan, “This new tax plan is in the same spirit as Trump’s initial proposal.

“He would cut taxes for the rich, cut taxes for businesses, provide minuscule tax cuts for lower-income groups, and then claim it’s a populist plan that helps working families.” The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda explains: https://bit.ly/2d4qezI.

Tonight’s highlights include a bright election forecast for Clinton, Congress catching up on financial technology, a Justice Department case against four Chinese nationals charged with aiding North Korea’s weapon trade and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s latest crackdown.

See something I missed? Let me know at slane@thehill.com or tweet me @SylvanLane. And if you like your newsletter, you can subscribe to it here: https://bit.ly/1NxxW2N.

The model forecasts that Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, will win 332 electoral votes, while Republican nominee Donald Trump will win 206 electoral votes.

President Obama’s strong popularity and low gas prices are boosting Clinton’s chances of winning the White House, Moody’s said. Still, an economist cautioned that this year’s race for the White House is “unusual” and hard to predict.

“It’s important to once again note that the model’s projections are solely a reflection of economic and political conditions upon the incumbent party, and do not take any aspects of the individual candidates into account,” said Dan White, a Moody’s economist who compiles the monthly model. The Hill’s Vicki Needham breaks it down: https://bit.ly/2deRLP8.

Ma Xiaohong, Zhou Jianshu, Hong Jinhua and Luo Chuanxu have been charged with conspiring to evade United States economic sanctions against North Korea and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, according to the Justice Department.
Ma, her company Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development (DHID), and the three others were charged with buying front companies to launder money made through transactions with Korea Kwangson Banking Corporation (KKBC).

KKBC was sanctioned in 2009 for helping two other North Korean firms deal goods and equipment for ballistic missiles and conventional weapons.

Ma, Zhou, Hong and Luo allegedly bought companies in the British Virgin Islands, the Seychelles and Hong Kong and opened 25 Chinese bank accounts to process sales to North Korea in U.S. dollars. I’ll tell you more here: https://bit.ly/2cyPoHs.

The agency on Monday said the company, which offers loans in exchange for a customer’s car title, also used debt collection tactics that illegally exposed information about debts to borrowers’ employers, friends and family.

“TMX Finance lured consumers into more expensive loans with information that hid the true costs of the deal,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in a statement.

“They then followed up with intrusive visits to homes and workplaces that put consumers’ personal information at risk.” The Hill’s Lydia Wheeler tells us how: https://bit.ly/2deuWr9.

Preliminary figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau show states collected $271 billion in tax revenues between April and June, down nearly $7 billion, or 2.5 percent, from the same quarter a year ago.

The drop was driven by a 3 percent decline in personal income taxes. Corporate income taxes fell 10 percent over the year before.

The second quarter figures represent the largest year-over-year decline in state tax revenues since the end of the recession. The Hill’s Reid Wilson tells us what’s going on: https://bit.ly/2cY5oBa.

The House last week passed a resolution supporting a national policy on “FinTech.” Those online banking and payment platforms fall under the jurisdiction of several federal regulators, leading congressional supporters and industry leaders to call for clearer federal standards and guidance.

“I’m a Luddite, and I was hoping to die before all this stuff happened, but like it or not, it’s happening and people need to figure out how to use it,” said Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.), who sits on the House Financial Services Committee.

FinTech is exploding in popularity, expediting financial transactions and broadening the banking sector. I’ll tell you what it is and why it matters here: https://bit.ly/2desQHW.

The program was authorized by a transportation funding law enacted last December. Contractors will work on the government’s behalf to collect debts from taxpayers who owe money but whose accounts are no longer being worked on directly by the IRS.

The IRS said it has chosen four agencies to carry out the program. Two of the contractors are based in New York, one is based in California, and one is based in Iowa. The contractors are supposed to follow provisions of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and respect taxpayers’ rights, the IRS said in a news release.

Cases that will be assigned to the contractors will include older accounts with overdue debts and accounts that the IRS doesn’t have the resources to handle itself, the IRS said: https://bit.ly/2cGj5ES.