Sam Knight - page 31

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to advance legislation required to avoid an immediate deepening of the financial crisis in Puerto Rico. Lew told McConnell on Monday that “the Senate should take up the matter immediately,” noting the island has $2 billion in debt payments due Friday. “In the event of default, and if creditor lawsuits are successful, a judge could immediately order Puerto Rico to pay creditors over essential services such as health, education, and public safety,” Lew warned.… Keep Reading

Associate Justice Samuel Alito no longer has a direct stake in Exxon Mobil, according to annual Supreme Court financial disclosures. The conservative jurist and his wife last year sold the stock they had jointly owned in the oil giant, which was worth between $100,000-$250,000. The sale means Alito can now participate in any case that involves Exxon, should one come before him at the high court. Since Alito started serving as a justice in 2006, he has recused himself from one case involving Exxon. In… Keep Reading

A federal judge in Wyoming on Tuesday tossed out Obama administration rules on fracking. District Judge Scott Skavdahl ruled that the Bureau of Land Management lacked authority to issue the regulations when it did so, in March 2015. Skavdahl, an Obama-appointee nominated to the bench in 2011, said BLM had narrow jurisdiction when regulating energy production. “Congress delegated regulatory authority for environmental protection of underground water sources to the Environmental Protection Agency, not the BLM,” he concluded. Administration lawyers had argued that Congress granted BLM… Keep Reading

Fed Chair Janet Yellen said she would not yet decide whether to employ regulatory tools to reduce the size and and risk of “too big to fail” banks, ahead of an Oct. 1 statutory deadline. Yellen noted Tuesday that the banks would almost certainly require federal assistance, if there were to be sudden tremors in financial markets. She would not, however, comment on how the Fed intends to move forward, if those firms don’t submit adequate resolution plans this fall. Those outlines, known as “living… Keep Reading

Lobbyists and financial services executives are heaping pressure on Hillary Clinton, urging her not to pick a progressive running mate. Corporate-funded advocacy groups told The Hill in an article published Tuesday that Labor Secretary Tom Perez would be unpalatable to the managerial and executive classes. The outreach came a day after Politico ran a story featuring numerous Wall Street donors anonymously criticizing the idea of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as Vice President. “If she picks someone hostile to small businesses, that sends an alarming message to the business community,”… Keep Reading

Well-heeled business interests lined up this week to ask a federal appeals court in Washington to throw out new workplace regulations with far-reaching implications. Lawyers for the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and Microsoft were among groups that filed amicus briefs, asking the court to declare the “joint employer” rule illegal. The National Labor Relations Board redefined “joint employer” in August 2015, in a 3-2 vote. “Direct and immediate control” over working conditions should be what defines the term, the board… Keep Reading

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) hit out at the Securities and Exchange Commission for dawdling on a conflict of interest rule it was ordered to implement by the Dodd-Frank Act. Merkley pressed SEC Chair Mary Jo White on Tuesday, asking about the state of the regulation before a Senate Bakning Committee oversight hearing. “Here we are six years later,” he said, referring to the timing of Dodd-Frank’s passage. “We don’t even have a draft rule.” White replied, calling the proposal “enormously important,” but said the matter was… Keep Reading

The Department of Education proposed a new set of rules aimed at easing the debt relief application process for students bilked by for-profit colleges. The initiative, revealed this week, would bar corporate schools from making prospective students relinquish their rights to sue—whether individually or in class action lawsuits. It would also grant the department more authority to discharge a group of students’ loan obligations, when it is determined they have been deceived by school administrators. The rules, if finalized, would also force for-profit schools to… Keep Reading