Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo will give a speech on Russian sanctions strategy at 10 a.m. at the Council on Foreign Relations … Existing home sales data will be released at 10 a.m. … WEDNESDAY … The FOMC minutes will be released at 2 p.m. … Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will hold a press conference in India at 7 p.m. … THURSDAY … Revised GDP will be released at 8:30 a.m. … Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic speaks at 10:50 a.m. … The SEC has a closed meeting at 2 p.m. … FRIDAY … The Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index will be released at 8:30 a.m. … New home sales and consumer sentiment data will be released at 10 a.m. … Fed Gov. Philip Jefferson speaks on disinflation at the U.S. Monetary Policy Forum at 10:15 a.m. BONFIRE OF THE Q&As — In light of the Acela set’s sudden fascination with etiquette, your MM host feels compelled to report on the tempest-in-a-teapot brewing at Washington’s Exchequer Club. Three members of the 63-year-old institution said that Assistant Treasury Secretary Graham Steele’s remarks at its Feb. 15 luncheon caused quite the stir — and not because of the content. The storied club’s protocol requires speakers to take questions from its policy wonk audience at the conclusion of their remarks. That wasn’t the case for Steele, who was provided a list of pre-submitted questions ahead of time after agreeing to sub for the scheduled speaker – Treasury Undersecretary for Domestic Finance Nellie Liang. “In recognition of the limited time Steele had to prepare, we determined that a modified format was appropriate,” the club’s chancellor, Margaret Liu, senior vice president and deputy general counsel at the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, told MM. The reaction was swift. Several club members raised objections with Exchequer leadership, while others stirred the pot with (unverified) claims that the Biden administration was shielding its appointees. “I’m irritated by how they handled this,” one member told MM, requesting anonymity to discuss internal matters at the club. “It pissed off a lot of people.” The uproar from Exchequer’s buttoned-up membership was a surprise to both Liu and Treasury officials, who said in a statement that they did not ask to see pre-cleared questions — or set any other parameters — as a condition for Steele’s appearance. Moving forward: “Our policy remains that our speakers take questions from the audience,” Liu said. Got any other weird tips or gossip? Preferably about something that doesn’t involve etiquette? (Though we’ll take those too). Send those to Sam at ssutton@politico.com and Zachary at zwarmbrodt@politico.com. Treasury previews next wave of Russia sanctions — Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo told reporters Monday night that the Biden administration will intensify its work to derail Russian sanctions evasion. It followed a similar announcement from President Joe Biden during Monday’s Kyiv trip, when he said he planned to announce later this week additional sanctions "against elites and companies that are trying to evade or backfill Russia’s war machine.” In a preview of a speech he’ll give later this morning at the Council on Foreign Relations (read his full remarks here), Adeyemo stayed mum on the specifics of the sanctions but gave a sense of the administration’s direction of travel: — Targeting Russia’s access to so-called dual-use technologies, like semiconductors from refrigerators, that help support its war effort in Ukraine. — Increasing the cost that Russia pays to get around sanctions, such as the money it spends on setting up its own oil trading ecosystem to sidestep the G-7 price cap on Russian crude and refined petroleum. — Continuing close coordination with U.S. allies, including intelligence sharing and travel by senior officials, as well as calling on companies in coalition countries to help prevent support from flowing to Russia. — The tactics, such as the crackdown on dual-use tech, also apply to China, and Adeyemo said the U.S. would try to shine a light on instances where Chinese companies are providing materials to Russia. — But Adeyemo said “China can’t give Russia what it doesn’t have,” meaning China isn’t producing the kinds of semiconductors that Russia needs for its war effort.— Zachary Warmbrodt MALPASS FALLOUT — World Bank President David Malpass’s abrupt decision to step down from his post has created an opening for Biden to tap a new leader to supervise an overhaul of the bank’s work to focus more on climate. As our Adam Behsudi, Zack Colman and Victoria Guida report, “the path ahead is littered with obstacles for the U.S.” “‘The world wants to move quickly, but we have to move in a way that builds consensus and recognizes that not all 189 members see the tradeoffs and the balance between global challenges and country-focused development in the same way,’ said Masood Ahmed, president of the Center for Global Development, a think tank. ‘That’s what the job is going to be for the next president, how do you build a way forward?’” TECHNICALLY/PRACTICALLY — CBO Director Phillip Swagel said on Friday that it’s "theoretically" possible for the Treasury Department to prioritize its payments if the U.S. hits its debt limit, writes Eleanor Mueller. “‘Our projections are based on the expectation, the assumption, that the U.S. government continues to pay its bills, that the debt ceiling is raised,’ Swagel said at a Bipartisan Policy Center discussion. But ‘in principle, it's feasible.’”
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