On The Money — Ukraine, Russia strike grain deal
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Observers hope Friday’s Ukraine-Russia grain deal will bring down global food prices. We’ll also look at the challenge of passing affordable housing legislation, one Senate Democrat’s push to investigate Amazon’s newest acquisition, and more.
But first, check out the top takeaways from each of the Jan. 6 hearings.
Welcome to On The Money, your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line. For The Hill, we’re Sylvan Lane, Aris Folley and Karl Evers-Hillstrom. Subscribe here.
Food shipments to resume out of Black Sea
Russia and Ukraine agreed to a deal Friday to open Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea, releasing stalled grain shipments into world markets to help alleviate an ongoing food crisis and bring down global prices.
The deal between the two countries was mediated through Turkey, which helped to broker the agreement under the auspices of the United Nations. The ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia has led to a de facto blockade of Black Sea ports that have been unable to export key agricultural goods like fertilizer and grain.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, speaking at a signing ceremony in Istanbul, hailed the deal as a “beacon of relief in a world that needs it more than ever.”
Turkish President Recep Erdogan said at the ceremony the agreement would help to ease pressure on sky-high food prices.
Global food prices are up more than 23 percent since last year, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said that the United States welcomes the development but said officials would be watching it closely, noting that Russia will need to actually comply with the agreement in order for it to be effective.
Tobias Burns has more here.
LEADING THE DAY
Lawmakers want to expand affordable housing. Communities say, ‘Not in my back yard’
Lawmakers are scrambling to pass affordable housing legislation after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) threw a wrench into yet another social spending package last week.
Manchin also rejected the Biden administration’s Build Back Better Act last year, which would have allotted more than $150 billion for housing geared toward the middle class and lower-income Americans.
To get those housing units built, lawmakers from both parties want to boost tax credits that incentivize builders to construct cheaper homes for low-income people in order to offset the often drastically higher profit margins that builders can make putting up homes for the wealthy.
But even with those credits in place, builders are coming up against resistance on the local and state level because low-income housing can depress property values and drag down municipal tax revenues that determine things like the quality of local school districts.
This phenomenon is known as “NIMBY-ism,” or “not in my backyard.” It means that even though voters and taxpayers may support government efforts to build more low- and middle-income housing, they’d prefer to have it done somewhere that doesn’t affect them personally.
Tobias has more on this here.
NOT SO FAST
Klobuchar asks FTC to investigate Amazon’s $3.9B move to buy One Medical
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a fierce critic of Amazon’s market power, is urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the e-commerce giant’s proposed $3.9 billion acquisition of primary health care provider One Medical.
The Minnesota Democrat, chair of the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, asked the FTC in a letter Thursday to investigate the deal over concerns she said it raises about anti-competitive behavior in the pharmaceutical industry and sensitive data it would allow the company to accumulate.
The American Economic Liberties Project has pushed for regulators to block Amazon’s One Medical Acquisition, calling it dangerous. Krista Brown, a senior policy analyst at the American Economic Liberties Project, said the deal would “entrench Amazon’s growing presence” in the healthcare industry in a way that undermines competition and poses “serious risks” to patients’ sensitive data.
Klobuchar has been an outspoken critic of the market power of Amazon and other tech giants. She’s the lead sponsor on a bipartisan antitrust reform bill, the American Innovation and Online Choice Act, that aims to keep industry giants, including Amazon, from preferencing their own products over their rivals.
There’s more here from The Hill’s Rebecca Klar.
New $270 million weapons package
The Biden administration on Friday rolled out a $270 million security assistance package for Ukraine that includes four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and hundreds of tactical drones.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the package includes $175 million in presidential drawdown authority, which allows the Pentagon to send weapons from its own stockpiles.
The remaining $95 million will go toward contracting up to 580 Phoenix Ghost unmanned aerial systems under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.
The Pentagon first sent the drones in April, when it included 121 of as part of an $800 million weapons package. The drones are similar to the Switchblade drone, which is a small, rapidly deployable system that can fly short distances and is difficult to detect.
In a statement released later Friday, the Pentagon said that the drawdown package will also contain four command post vehicles and 36,000 rounds of 105mm ammunition, as well as additional anti-armor weapons, spare parts and other equipment.
The Hill’s Jordan Williams has the rundown here.
Good to Know
Workers in Alaska, Montana and Wyoming are resigning at the highest rate in the country, according to new data from WalletHub.
Since the coronavirus pandemic began and then ebbed, a wave of workers have chosen to leave their jobs as Americans’ priorities and living situations shifted.
That trend shows no signs of slowing down, with a recent report from McKinsey finding that 40 percent of workers are still planning on leaving their current place of employment.
These are the 10 states with the highest resignation rates.
Here’s what else we have our eye on:
The convenience store company 7-Eleven has cut about 880 associate positions as it completes its restructuring after acquiring Speedway, a convenience store and gas station chain, last year.
Jay Carney, a former White House press secretary under former President Obama, is leaving his role as head of Amazon’s global affairs for a top policy job at Airbnb.
The Department of Justice announced an environmental justice investigation into reports of illegal dumping by the city of Houston in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading and check out The Hill’s Finance page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you next week.
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