Following the Supreme Court’s Vance ruling, Trump must decide by Wednesday whether to challenge a subpoena for his tax documents. Last week, the US Supreme Court ruled that the President of the United States does not have "absolute immunity" from a criminal subpoena. But the high court said Trump still can contest a grand jury’s 2019 subpoena, issued as part of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr’s broad investigation into the Trump Organization's role in hush money payments made during the 2016 election season. A trial judge gave the president’s lawyers until Wednesday to argue why the subpoena should be quashed. But resolving the issue could take months.
It’s back to the lower courts following the Mazars ruling, too. The high court blocked House Democrats from accessing Trump’s financial records. It sent that case back to lower courts for more consideration into “significant separation of powers concerns” raised by congressional subpoenas for the president’s information.
Congress has no clear roadmap for its next COVID-19 response. TPC’s Howard Gleckman lays out the issues that Congress must resolve upon its return on July 20. “Congress and the Trump Administration must address three domains—public health, state and local government aid, and support for businesses and households still reeling from the pandemic. But what should they do? In two of those areas, the answers are relatively clear, though still controversial. But the unprecedented nature and speed of the economic decline makes the third murky at best.”
Will public schools receive federal money to reopen—and how? There is growing bipartisan support for education funding in the next pandemic aid package, but The Hill outlines the emerging divisions among lawmakers. How would federal funds be allocated to K-12 schools? Should aid go directly to schools, or as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos suggests, should parents receive vouchers to pay for private education if public schools cannot open?
Trump would remove the tax-exempt status of some schools. As part of his effort to force schools to reopen in the fall despite the pandemic, Trump tweeted that he will direct the Treasury Department to review the tax-exempt status “and/or” funding of universities and school systems. He accuses some of “radical left indoctrination.” But federal law bans the IRS from targeting groups for “regulatory scrutiny based on their ideological beliefs.”
“Vive la guerre des tarifs?” President Trump threatens to impose new 25-percent tariffs on $1.3 billion in French goods, including cosmetics, soap, and handbags starting in January. The threat comes in retaliation for France’s 3-percent digital tax on large US firms that provide services to French consumers over the internet. But in response to heavy lobbying, the White House says the US tariffs will not apply to French cheese, sparkling wine, and cookware, though the US threatened to tax those items in December.
In case you missed them last week… Watch The Prescription: Fiscal Policy in the COVID-19 Economy conversation with Atlanta Federal Reserve President and CEO Raphael Bostic. You can tune in to last week’s State of the States: Pandemic-Driven Budgeting Innovations” discussion here.
Congress is not in session. The Daily Deduction will resume its regular schedule on Monday, July 20.
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