FOMC will announce its interest rate move at 2 p.m., followed by a Jerome Powell press conference at 2:30 p.m. … President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy will meet … House Financial Services will vote on its new structure and rules at 1 p.m. … Brainard, Bernstein close to clinching top White House roles— POLITICO’s Ben White reports that Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard is poised to be the next director of the White House National Economic Council, with long-time Biden confidant Jared Bernstein likely to be the next chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. Multiple senior Biden aides and others close to the process described the hires as as close to assured, but no formal announcement is set yet. CFPB proposes credit card fee cap — CFPB Director Rohit Chopra will propose new restrictions on credit card late fees ahead of today’s meeting of the White House Competition Council, our Sam Sutton reports. The administration is also calling on Congress to pass a law that would crack down on fees for concerts, airlines and internet service. The CFPB said its credit card proposal would reduce late fees by as much as $9 billion per year. Biden, McCarthy debt limit meeting prep— Biden and McCarthy will kick off debt limit discussions today, and expectations could not be lower. Few members of either party expect the discussion to produce any breakthroughs, according to our Hill and budget reporters. The GOP is hoping that Biden “shows a shred of openness to taking its demands seriously, even as very few of its members specify what they want Biden to negotiate on.” A few things you should know: — House Republicans will hold a debt limit meeting this morning before McCarthy talks with Biden. — Biden plans to seek a commitment from McCarthy that the U.S. will never default on its financial obligations. — Administration officials will unveil their proposed budget for the coming fiscal year on March 9, as they demand that House GOP leaders reveal their own proposals for spending cuts. Coming soon: Action at the Financial Services and Banking Committees — POLITICO’s Eleanor Mueller and your MM host have more details on what the next several weeks will look like at House Financial Services and Senate Banking. House Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry has nearly a dozen committee meetings planned through the end of March, according to sources familiar with the schedule, which hasn’t been announced. Some highlights from Eleanor’s reporting: — A full committee China hearing next Tuesday. — Votes on data privacy legislation Feb. 28 followed by votes on capital formation bills March 28-29. Both will be preceded by hearings on the topics. — Testimony from Fed Chair Jerome Powell on March 8. — A full committee hearing on digital assets on March 9. House Financial Services will hold its first meeting of the year today at 1 p.m. to vote on its organization and rules. One point of friction between Republicans and Democrats will likely be McHenry’s decision to scrap the diversity and inclusion subcommittee set up by Rep. Maxine Waters when she was chair. The committee’s organization plan would codify McHenry’s plan to make D&I part of the other Financial Services subcommittees. Democrats plan to respond with an amendment on diversity and inclusion. “People will be able to speak for or against it,” Waters told Eleanor. “To the degree you have diversity and inclusion, you get better responses to deal with the complicated problems of our society" Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown told MM that his first hearings this year will be on housing and crypto. He said the committee is getting off to a slower start than expected, which he blamed on Republicans not settling their committee assignments. “We planned to have a hearing this week on housing and then next week on crypto and that’s been pushed back at least a week,” he said Tuesday. A GOP seat on Banking is expected to go to Brown’s fellow Ohioan, J.D. Vance, sources tracking the process said. Brown said he also heard Vance had been in the mix, as well as Sens. Tommy Tuberville, Katie Britt and Ted Budd. Brown’s crypto hearing plan is not totally clear yet, but he said part of the goal is to “smoke out what’s happening internationally with crypto” from a national security perspective, including countries using it to “run weapons and drugs and all kinds of unseemly activities that crypto can enable.”
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