March Winds Will Blow All of Our Troubles Away

04 Mar March Winds Will Blow All of Our Troubles Away

As we move into March and hopefully spring weather at some point, Congress currently is in the middle of a three-week work period. Four more DC work weeks will follow a recess week after St. Patrick’s Day heading into the April spring recess. Last week was very busy in Washington and produced noteworthy hearings on the credit bureaus, privacy, diversity and monetary policy, among others (and not to mention Michael Cohen), and these next few weeks promise to be just as hectic. To highlight a few noteworthy events over these next few weeks – CFPB Director Kraninger has appearances scheduled in the House and Senate, Wells Fargo will be back in the spotlight, diversity in the corporate world will continue to be scrutinized, and there undoubtedly will be more Trump Administration oversight. This week, the full House will spend most of its time on HR 1, the broad Democratic campaign finance, ethics and voting rights reform bill, which should pass through that chamber easily but will die quickly in the Senate. On the other side of the Hill, we still expect the Senate to spend a majority of their Floor time on nominations, especially judicial nominees, but we also expect to see Mark Calabria confirmed as the new FHFA Director in the next month. We highlight these and other issues below as we briefly preview what we believe will be the focus in Washington in March, subject as always to external or unexpected events that could disrupt the schedule.