–Senate Set To Vote Wednesday On Bill To Fund Gov Through March 27
–Sen Banking Subcommittee To Hold Thurs Hearing on Computerized Trading
–Hill Tax Panels To Hold Joint Hearing on Capital Gains Taxes

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – In what may be the final week that Congress
meets before the November elections, the Senate is expected to pass a
stop-gap spending bill that would fund the government for six months.

The Senate will first hold a procedural vote Wednesday on the
stop-gap spending bill for the 2013 fiscal year that funds the
government until March 27. The stop-gap bill is expected to clear the
procedural hurdle in the Senate Wednesday. The Senate’s final vote on
the spending bill will be either Wednesday or Thursday.

The House passed the same bill last Thursday on a 329 to 91 vote.

Once the Senate clears the bill it goes to President Obama for his
signature.

The 2013 fiscal year begins on Oct. 1 and so far Congress has
passed none of the 12 spending bills for FY’13.

House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
reached an agreement in July on a stop-gap funding bill, deciding to
use the $1.047 discretionary spending limit that was set in the 2011
debt ceiling agreement. Some House Republicans had wanted to cut
spending below the agreed limit.

Republicans and Democrats are expected to continue to exchange
recriminations over the impasse pertaining to the coming fiscal cliff.

The fiscal cliff refers to the convergence of several consequential
fiscal policy actions: the expiration of the Bush era tax cuts at the
end of 2012, the implementation of across-the-board spending cuts in
2013, and the need to raise the nation’s statutory debt ceiling sometime
in coming months.

This week’s partisan sniping is likely to focus on the report
issued Friday by the White House regarding the scheduled
across-the-board spending cuts, called sequestration.

The White House’s Office of Management and Budget said that if the
$110 billion in across-the-board spending cuts for the 2013 fiscal year
go forward they will compel deep cuts in more than a thousand defense
and domestic spending programs.

In a report mandated by Congress, OMB said the sequestration
process would have a “deeply destructive impact” on virtually all parts
of the federal budget.

The OMB report said the sequestration process would have a
“devastating impact” on key programs in both the defense and domestic
portions of the federal budget.

In other action this week, a subcommittee of the Senate Banking
Committee will hold a hearing Thursday at 10 a.m. on what rules should
guide computerized trading. The panel will hear from David Lauer, a
consultant with Better Markets, Andrew Brooks, head of U.S. equity
trading for T. Rowe Price, Chris Concannon of Virtu Financial, and Larry
Tabb of the TaBB Group.

The Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee
will hold a joint hearing Thursday at 10 a.m. on proposals related to
how capital gains taxes should be revised in the context of broader tax
reform.

The House Financial Services Committee will meet Thursday at 10
a.m. to review the semi-annual report of the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau. Richard Cordray, the director of the CFPB, will
testify.

One subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee will
hold a hearing this week. The monetary policy subcommittee chaired by
Rep. Ron Paul will hold a hearing Thursday at 2 p.m. on the monetary
effects of interest rates and the consequences of interest rate setting
as a monetary tool employed by the Fed.

** MNI Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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