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Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting is scheduled to testify in front of the House Financial Services Committee on Jan. 29, setting up a potential fight between House Democrats and Otting on the Community Reinvestment Act overhaul, MorningConsult.com reported. Otting missed appearing with other financial regulators in early December, although he submitted written testimony. His absence drew harsh criticism from committee Democrats, who have grown increasingly concerned over the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s plans to revamp the Community Reinvestment Act. The OCC has led efforts to overhaul, for the first time in a quarter-century, the Community Reinvestment Act. The more-than 200-page proposal released by the OCC and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. would allow banks more flexibility on meeting the government mandate for lending to poor neighborhoods. In an added wrinkle, while the FDIC has signed on to the OCC’s plan, the Federal Reserve has not, creating potential compliance issues for banks if the regulators continue without a joint rule.

Congressional leaders struck a tax-policy deal yesterday, capping a long weekend of negotiations with an agreement that will extend lapsed and expiring tax breaks but won’t be as expansive as many lawmakers had hoped, the Wall Street Journal reported. The extended breaks included incentives for biodiesel producers, which expired at the end of 2017 but would last through 2022 if enacted. A more generous medical-expense deduction for individuals that lapsed at the end of 2018 would run through 2020. A tax credit for short-line railroad maintenance would last through 2022. Breaks for brewers and distillers set to lapse this year would continue through 2020. The measures are being added to a spending bill slated for passage this week before Congress finishes its work for the year. But lawmakers came up short of a broader tax deal that some had sought. As late as Monday evening, they were discussing making some of the tax breaks permanent.