Budget resolution | Health-care Senate vote again delayed | NAFTA 2.0
House committee action on a budget resolution, a deferred Senate vote, again, on the lingering health-care reform bill, and NAFTA 2.0-related developments are the focal points in Washington this week.
The House Budget Committee this week should finally hold a markup session on the budget resolution, a key link for other must-have issues like tax reform. The measure would also have farm bill implications if as expected the measure includes mandatory spending cuts relative to the food stamp (SNAP) program. Cuts of $8 billion to $10 billion have been mentioned, along with worker requirements, with some sources saying some or all of any such “cuts” could be moved back into the program come farm bill time to aid existing food stamp participants.
Omnibus likely. House GOP leaders are eyeing putting all the annual appropriations packages together in one big omnibus spending plan after all the bills get completed next week.
On the Senate side, health-care reform will no longer be an attention point in the wake of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) having surgery to remove a blood clot and he will not be in Washington this week as he recovers. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the chamber would “defer” action on health care as a result.
More nominations will be looked at by Senate committees.
House Agriculture subcommittee farm bill work continues, with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and rural infrastructure issues in focus.
NAFTA 2.0 focus. A House Ways & Means subcommittee on Tuesday will look at the coming NAFTA 2.0 negotiations. The negotiating objectives for NAFTA will be laid out by the Trump administration, likely released today by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
Other hearing topics include the Global Food Security Act, road safety, the state of the electricity industry, tax reform, agricultural guest workers and rural tele-health services.
The House will have their eyes on the exit for the August congressional recess while the Senate will be in Washington for the first two weeks of August. Plus, the watch will be on for additional nominations at USDA and other agencies.
Today is the deadline to provide answers to a series of 30 questions posed by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service on the biotech food disclosure rules required by a 2016 law that preempt state GMO labeling laws.
This week is a relatively light one for economic updates as we start getting into manufacturing and housing data. The week opens Monday with the Empire State Manufacturing report followed by Import and Export Prices and Housing Market Index on Tuesday. Housing Starts data arrives Wednesday and the week’s updates Thursday include Weekly Jobless Claims, Philadelphia Fed Business Outlook Survey and Leading Indicators. Traders will continue to assess economic data and see if there are any signs that inflation could be starting to perk up and how the data plays into the expectations for second half of 2017.
It will be a quiet week for the Fed as well with the blackout period starting July 15 and running through the July 20. That will give traders not a lot to focus on since there are not a lot of economic updates. Still the attention will be on whether the data continues to back up the expectation that a rate increase yet in 2017 may not be all that assured. That could put foreign central bankers more in the spotlight without having US officials on the schedule to deliver remarks.
Weather will remain as the attention point for agriculture markets and if forecasts shift, that could impact price direction. The updates from USDA on crop condition ratings via the Crop Progress data today will still be important while the demand updates via Grain Inspections and Weekly Export Sales still could get market attention if they shift from recent patterns. The big daily sale of soybeans to China for 2017/18 could be followed up with additional hefty sales that stem from the purchase agreements Chinese buyers signed for 12.53 million tonnes of US soybeans. Other releases ahead include Sugar and Sweeteners Outlook, Livestock Slaughter and Friday will see livestock updates in the form of the twice yearly Cattle report and the monthly feedlot update via the Cattle on Feed report.
