A Step Closer to Trump’s Dream Fed: Starting Line

In the Fed Seat

President Donald Trump could come one step closer to securing his dream Federal Reserve today, when the Senate Banking Committee votes on Stephen Miran’s nomination to be the central bank’s newest governor.

The full Senate is then expected to approve his nomination as soon as Monday, a day before the Federal Open Market Committee starts its two-day meeting.

Just four Republican defectors could thwart Miran’s chances on the floor. But he isn’t expected to face that hurdle, after Miran assured senators at his confirmation hearing that he would support the independence of the central bank on monetary policy.

That’s good news for the president, who’s been battling to re-shape the Federal Reserve by putting more of his picks on it.

Ironically, the central bank is already expected to cut interest rates for the first time since December due to weakening job growth. Just yesterday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics preliminarily revised its data for the 12 months ending in March to show that US job growth was only about half as robust as the government first estimated it was. Read More

Another personnel change Trump is trying to make at the central bank isn’t going so smoothly. A federal judge temporarily blocked the president late last night from removing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.

That means Cook could stay in her job as she challenges her firing over allegations she committed mortgage fraud in court—which means both Cook and Miran could be casting votes in next week’s policy meeting.

In a statement early today, White House spokesman Kush Desai said the president “lawfully removed Lisa Cook” and the judge’s ruling “will not be the last say on the matter.” Read More

Appropriation Station

The Commerce-Science-Justice spending bill will be marked up by House appropriators today, as Congress rushes to finish their fiscal 2026 funding plans.

It’s the Appropriations Committee’s second attempt to advance this legislation, which would spend $76.8 billion. They scrapped the first vote — initially scheduled before summer recess — in an attempt by Republicans to sidestep a potential fight over releasing federal documents tied to Jeffrey Epstein.

Today’s markup comes a day after the same panel signaled its willingness to advance Trump’s vision to combine several health department agencies into a new Administration for a Healthy America at its Labor-HHS-Education spending bill markup. Read More

Meanwhile, lawmakers are negotiating a stopgap funding bill to avoid a government shutdown when the fiscal year ends Sept. 30. Yesterday, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the House Appropriations panel’s top Democrat, rejected Trump’s proposal to largely funding extend at current levels funding through Jan. 31, Jack Fitzpatrick and Roxana Tiron report. Read More

Bloomberg Government subscribers can read more in today’s BGOV Budget newsletter.

Squeezing Russia

Trump is considering new tariffs on India and China to pressure Russia to rejoin negotiations over its war with Ukraine — but only if EU nations do so as well. That’s a tough, however. Several EU nations, including Hungary, have blocked more stringent sanctions targeting Russia’s energy sector in the past. Read More

Poland is consulting NATO about a response after it shot down drones that crossed into its territory during Russia’s latest massive air strike on Ukraine, calling it an “act of aggression.” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the airspace violation early this morning amounted to an intentional provocation from Moscow. Read More

Other Trump tariffs will soon be reviewed by the US Supreme Court, which will hear arguments during the first week of November. If Trump wins, his presidential power and ability to target trading partners will get a big boost. A loss could cut the current average US effective tariff rate of 16.3% by at least half and force the US to refund tens of billions of dollars. Read More

Also Read: Trump Says He’ll Speak to Modi in ‘Coming Weeks’ on Trade

The End of DC’s Emergency

Republicans in Congress won’t fight to extend Trump’s national emergency declaration in Washington, which ends today.

“No one’s calling on Congress yet to act on that,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters Tuesday.

Instead, they’re focusing on passing crime bills that are seen as politically popular with voters. Legislation to fire the DC attorney general, change mandatory minimums, and lower the age juveniles can be tried as adults are among the slate of Washington-focused bills on the agenda for today’s House Oversight Committee markup. One measure aimed at homeless individuals would impose a fine up to $500, or imprisonment up to 30 days, for camping outdoors on public property, Maeve Sheehey reports.

The package could be on the House floor in the coming weeks. Read More

Also Read: Trump, Hailing DC Under US Troops, Says Another City Coming Soon

Walkinshaw’s Next Steps

Virginia Democrat James Walkinshaw’s win last night makes him a member of an exclusive group of former congressional chiefs of staff who return to Congress as lawmakers.

His time as a Capitol Hill insider will serve him well to represent a Washington-area constituency of more than 50,000 federal civilian workers as well as lobbyists, congressional aides, contractors, and others whose work is linked to the federal government, Greg Giroux reports.

Instead of being a jack-of-all-trades, Walkinshaw said he’s going to focus on specific areas, such as the federal workers and contractors in northern Virginia who have been adversely affected by the Trump administration’s campaign to downsize the federal workforce. Transportation is another of his top issues. Read More

Revenge Pending

US officials are preparing a revenge bod — er, legislation — in case international tax negotiations don’t go their way.

Treasury official Kenneth Kies is signaling GOP House members should be ready to retaliate if Europe doesn’t exempt US companies from the global minimum tax by the end of the year.

What would that look like? Republicans could resuscitate their so-called “revenge tax” that would likely allow Washington to place additional taxes on individuals and companies from countries it deemed to have levied discriminatory taxes against the US.

Similar language was removed from Republicans’ tax-and-spending bill earlier this year over companies’ concerns that it’d inhibit international investment, Zach C. Cohen and Erik Wasson report.

But House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) says this time, that wouldn’t stop his party from passing it. He even threatened to include it in a second budget reconciliation bill, so the GOP could pass it without Democratic votes. Read More

Before You Go

Ohio Medicaid Malarkey: Ohio legislators slipped in a provision into their must-pass state budget to disband a committee probing multi-billion dollar contracts with the nation’s largest processor of Medicaid claims. The provision, which hasn’t been previously reported, leaves oversight of some of Medicaid’s biggest contracts in flux, Celine Castronuovo reports. Read More

Wu’s Winning: Boston Mayor Michelle Wu appears set to sail to a first-place finish in the city’s preliminary mayoral election on Tuesday, handily besting a well-funded challenge from Josh Kraft in voters’ first chance to weigh in ahead of the final contest. Both Wu and Kraft are set to continue on to the final election Nov. 4, but Wu’s early lead Tuesday night by a 2-1 margin may spur questions about the viability of Kraft’s campaign. Read More

Side Effects Expected: The Trump administration announced a crackdown on pharmaceutical advertising on television and social media platforms, potentially disrupting billions of dollars in annual ad spending. Read More

‘Nonsense': Trump dismissed as “nonsense” a birthday note he allegedly sent to Epstein and sought to tamp down continued questions over his past interactions with the late disgraced financier. The document was released Monday by House Democrats in response to a congressional subpoena of Epstein’s estate. Read More

NIL Fight: Colleges and athletic conferences are locked in a high-stakes fight on Capitol Hill over potential federal rules for star student athletes to profit off their name, image, and likeness, Olivia Gyapong and Kate Ackley report. Read More

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