Drew League Week 6: Black Pearl Elite stays undefeated led by Montrezl Harrell

• July 8, 2024

The Drew League entered its sixth week of play on July 6 and 7 at King Drew Magnet High School. Black Pearl Elite continues its winning streak but some teams who haven’t performed as well made roster additions to boost their squad.

The big question moving forward is what big players will show up. Kevin Punter, who was a standout scorer last season in the Euroleague, helped Undisputed Legends get a win. Very few players in the league will have a chance to contain Punter.

Here are a few things to look out for at the Drew League in the coming weeks.

Black Pearl Elite remains unbeaten

Black Pearl Elite (B.P.E.) coached by Lamar Gayle and Cedrick Lusk is the only remaining unbeaten team in the Drew League. B.P.E. features former LA Clipper Montrezl Harrell, who finished with 25 points and eight rebounds in a 79-70 win over Hometown Favorites.

Harrell only missed one field goal attempt out of his 10 shots. Last summer, Harrell played with the 2023 Drew League Champions Tuff Fades. Players went their separate directions this season with Franklin Session starting his own team, Elevate.

Harrell, who last played in the NBA in 2023 with the Philadelphia 76ers, said his goal for Elite is to win the Drew League.

“It’s going to take consistent play like we’re doing,” Harrell said. “We’re going to have to keep defending and going to have to keep putting together great quarters.”

B.P.E has made deep playoff runs the past few seasons but hasn’t secured a championship. This season the team has brought on younger talent to supplement the roster.

One of those younger players is DJ Brewton, who played for Cal State Fullerton last season. Brewton is a shifty guard who thrives in the open floor setting of the Drew where he can use his elusive handle and shot-making ability.

Brewton had 23 points on 10-for-10 shooting from the field and has been a key contributor in all of the team’s matchups.

“We’re just trying to win a championship,” Gayle said. “We’ve been at it for seven years and been in two finals in a row.”

B.P.E won’t have Kyree Walker until potentially the playoffs. Walker was a key player for the team before he departed for his season with the Canadian Basketball League.

B.P.E. will face off against the Nationwide Souljas on Saturday at 3 p.m.

New addition for Undisputed Legends

For the most part, the Drew League made up of current professionals from overseas and the NBA and college players along with a few elite high school players.

But Kevin Punter on Undisputed Legends is a different level of player. In his first week with his team, Punter scored 29 points on 10 of 14 shooting from the field, including this stepback jumper with a defender draped on him in a 103-78 win over the Jedi.

Kevin Punter lighting it up in the Drew League right now. Two nasty pull up three pointers.

Punter played last season for FC Barcelona basketball in the Euroleague and averaged 15 ppg last season.

Definitely an NBA level talent. pic.twitter.com/AaR5ooizwX

— Matthew Ho (@mho_kj) July 6, 2024

Punter went undrafted in 2016 and played for the Minnesota Timberwolves Summer League team after graduating from Tennessee. He’s been one of the best scorers in the Euroleague. Last season he averaged 15 points per game for Partizan Mozzart Bet in Belgrade, Serbia.

The Jedi, who are coached by former LA Clipper and longtime NBA veteran Corey Maggette, opted to double-team Punter in pick-and-roll scenarios to get the ball out of his hands, but Undisputed Legends countered by having Punter isolate his defender and get his own shot off.

Many teams are expected to bring in high-level talent from overseas and the NBA as the summer goes along. Undisputed Legends were 1-4 coming into the game but their outlook changes with Punter.

Other game notes

Overseas veteran Jerome Randle scored 30 points as the Cititeam Blazers took down Nationwide Soujas 83-82. Blazers and Souljas are now tied at 4-2.
For Rex 6, Wali Hepburn dropped 33 points and hit a game-winning fading three-pointer at the buzzer in a back and forth matchup versus Dawg Pound. Rex 6 improves to 2-4 and hands Dawg Pound their second loss of the season after starting off 4-1.
In a battle between two 4-1 teams, the I-Can All Stars beat the Mecca Cheaters 66-62. Noel Scott for I-Can All Stars was named Player of the Game with 16 points, five rebounds and five steals.
West Coast Elite had the highest point differential in the Drew League and led by double-digits against the Saints. The Saints made a run to get back into the game but West Coast Elite held on for an 81-78 win. MVP candidate Deshawndre Washington scored 20 points in the win.

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Score from the weekend

Black Pearl Elite 79, Hometown Favorites 70

Undisputed Legends 103, Jedi 78

Problems 83, Elevate 66

Reapers Black Ops 111, Surgeon 106

Cititeam Blazers 83, Nationwide Souljas 82

Rex 6 82, Dawg Pound. 79

Task Force 82, Redemption 62

I-Can Allstars 66, Mecca Cheaters 62

West Coast Elite 81, Saints 78

California Supreme Court 70, Young Citi PTI 53,

Women’s Drew League

After winning Week 5 Player of the Week, Imani McGee, who is the daughter of former WNBA player and Los Angeles Sparks standout, Pamela McGee and half-sister of NBA player JaVale McGee dropped had 25 points and 16 rebounds in the Remix’s 67-60 win over Undisputed Legends. McGee is in a strong position for the MVP race.

TNSS 57, Task Force 47

Remix 67, Undisputed Legends 60

Redemption 70, Lady Jedi 53

GAGE 48, Triple Threat 46

RELATED:

Drew League: Session, Elevate shine in Week 5 with NBA players on the horizon

Drew League looks to bring in younger talent in 51st season

​ Orange County Register 

Housing slump deepened this spring. Where does that leave home shoppers and sellers?

• July 8, 2024

By Alex Veiga | The Associated Press

The housing market shows few signs of busting out of its three-year funk after a disappointing spring season and amid a gloomy outlook for the summer and fall.

Home shoppers came into 2024 with optimism that mortgage rates would ease further after a decline late last year. But those hopes faded as stronger-than-expected data on inflation and the economy clouded the timing of a possible rate cut by the Federal Reserve.

By April, the average rate on a 30-year home loan moved above 7% for the first time since November. That, plus record-high home prices, forced many would-be homebuyers to put their house hunt on hold — some indefinitely.

Economists are projecting mortgage rates will ease modestly by the end of this year. But a small decline in rates may not be enough to entice home shoppers and persuade homeowners it’s a good time to sell.

Here is a look at the key trends behind the housing market’s trajectory so far this year and what homebuyers and sellers can expect in the second half of 2024:

The spring homebuying season was a bust — again

On average, more than one-third of all homes sold in a given year are purchased between March and June. This is known as the spring homebuying season, and it’s been a downer in recent years.

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in the March-June period from a year earlier in 2022 and 2023. Sales declined in March, April and May of this year, and indications are that June saw a pullback as well.

The weak spring sales are a reflection of the affordability challenges many home shoppers face: the average rate on a 30-year mortgage rate is moored near 7%; the supply of homes for sale is historically low; and home prices are at record highs.

High rates deter homebuyers

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage is at 6.95%, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. That is more than double where it was in early July 2021.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including how the bond market reacts to the Fed’s interest rate policy and the moves in the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

The 10-year yield, which topped 4.7% in late April, has been mostly falling recently following some economic data showing slower growth, which could help keep a lid on inflationary pressures and convince the Fed to begin lowering its main interest rate from its highest level in more than 20 years.

Fed officials said in June that inflation had moved closer to its target level of 2% in recent months and signaled that they expect to cut their benchmark interest rate once this year.

Even so, economists’ projections call for the average rate on a 30-year home loan to remain above 6%.

Not enough homes for sale

Another impediment for homebuyers is the historically low inventory of homes on the market.

The good news: The number of homes on the market at the end of May was the most since August 2022, a trend that bodes well for homebuyers this summer. The bad news: The supply of homes available for sale nationally remains well below its pre-pandemic levels.

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The supply of homes for sale across the U.S. was tight before Covid hit due to more than a decade of below-average new home construction and demographic trends that led to homeowners hanging on to their properties longer.

The large gap between current mortgage rates and where they were just three years ago (3%) has also discouraged many homeowners who secured rock-bottom rates from selling, what real estate experts refer to as the “lock-in” effect.

The price isn’t right

The national median sales price of a previously occupied home rose 5.8% in May from a year earlier to $419,300, an all-time high on records going back to 1999, according to the National Association of Realtors. It’s also up 51% from just five years ago.

The price increases are slowing, however. CoreLogic’s home price index shows U.S. home prices rose 4.9% in May from a year earlier, the smallest increase since October. The real estate data tracker forecasts that national home price growth will slow to 3% by next May.

“The surge in mortgage rates this spring caused both slowing homebuyer demand and prices,” said Selma Hepp, CoreLogic’s chief economist.

Home prices are cooling as more homes sit on the market longer. Metro areas in Florida, Texas, Georgia and other states where home construction ramped up in recent years have also seen price growth ease.

Some economists worry that a slight decline in mortgage rates without a jump in the inventory of homes on the market could actually work against buyers struggling to afford a home by giving sellers an incentive to boost their asking price.

“It makes me a bit concerned for what will happen with home prices when rates do drop, because I think it would spur demand without really spurring supply, at least in the short run,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. “That could lead to some sharp rise in prices.”

Should anyone buy now?

Homebuyers who can afford to buy now should benefit from the wider selection of homes on the market.

Anyone who can afford to pay all cash may also want to buy in the near term.

“Prices have been going up, and they’re probably not going to come down, so there’s really no reason to wait if you’re not waiting for rates to come down,” Redfin’s Fairweather said.

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Murder by Suicide series

• July 8, 2024

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Despite a persistent heat wave, California’s grid is ‘stable’

• July 8, 2024

Though there are no signs that residential utility customers need to reduce their energy use, a lingering heat wave covering much of California has prompted the state’s grid operator to send an alert to power companies.

The California Independent System Operator has issued a Restricted Maintenance Operations notification to utilities (such as San Diego Gas & Electric) and electricity transmission operators, instructing them to avoid performing routine maintenance through 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. When high demand on the electric grid is anticipated, such notifications are sent to make sure all generators and transmission lines are available.

In addition, a Transmission Emergency for Northern California that has been in place since July 3 will remain in effect through Wednesday night. California ISO officials are keeping on eye on whether wildfires in the area could affect transmission facilities in the region.

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“The hot weather is persisting, but the grid remains stable,” the ISO said on a post Sunday on X, formerly known as Twitter. “We are not expecting any energy supply shortfalls … as we continue to monitor the hot weather and wildfire activity.”

Northern California has borne the brunt of the heat wave that has lasted more than a week.

Sacramento hit a high of 113 on Saturday, July 6, setting a city record for that date. Hot weather forces homeowners and businesses to crank up their air conditioners, increasing demand on the electric grid.

Wildfires also put power lines and electricity infrastructure at risk. The Thompson Fire that started on July 2 near the town of Oroville in Butte County destroyed 13 homes and led to the evacuation of 13,000 residents. As of Sunday, Cal Fire officials said the fire is 86 percent contained and said it charred nearly 3,800 acres.

Though not serious as other areas of the state, parts of San Diego County have also sweltered in the heat.

The National Weather Service on Monday predicted high temperatures of 94 degrees in Escondido and Julian, 99 degrees in Campo and 121 degrees in Borrego Springs and Ocotillo Wells.

No wildfires have been reported in the San Diego area, although firefighters — who have battled a series of recent brushfires — are on alert.

California ISO officials expect to have enough energy supply to cover demand. The system is projected to have about 55,000 megawatts available on Monday, more than enough to meet the expected peak demand of just over 43,000 megawatts.

Whenever demand on the grid threatens to outpace the available megawatts needed to keep the power system running smoothly, the ISO issues a number of different measures. One of the tools is a Flex Alert, in which the grid operator asks utility customers to voluntarily reduce consumption in the late afternoon and early evening hours, when the power system is under the most strain.

The ISO has not indicated any Flex Alerts are in the offing during the current heat wave, but said, “Consumers can always help maintain reliability by conserving energy when possible from 4-9 p.m. on hot days.”

No Flex Alerts were issued last year but in 2022, a “heat dome” that blanketed California and neighboring states in late August through early September prompted the system operator to issue a record 10 consecutive days of Flex Alerts.

For all of 2022, 11 Flex Alerts were announced.

​ Orange County Register 

Americans traveled internationally 8% more this spring compared with a year ago

• July 8, 2024

Lacey Pfalz | TravelPulse (TNS)

Americans left the country more this spring than they did before the pandemic, according to new passenger volume data released by The National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO).

The new data focused on the month of April and found that more than 8 million Americans left in April to travel internationally, an 8% increase from April 2023 and 106.3% higher than in April of 2019, prior to the pandemic.

Of the departures made in April, 38.5% left for Mexico, while 20.2% left for Europe. Canada is receiving an increase in popularity, with a 12.9% growth in visitation from Americans from April 2023.

Travel observers have seen an increased desire for international travel among Americans since the pandemic ended, and confidence once again grew for travel as a whole, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

The NTTO reports a strong statistic supporting that confidence: April was the 37th consecutive month that the total number of Americans traveling internationally grew on a year-over-year basis. This might indicate that the international travel trend is only growing the farther removed we are from the pandemic era.

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NTTO data from March 2024 found much the same, with a 20% increase in Americans traveling internationally compared with March 2019. The data also reported a growth in Americans heading to Europe, especially.

It’s not just an American trend, either. April data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) found that international air travel demand grew nearly 16% globally year over year.

Travelers heading to America from other countries increased 5.2% in April compared to the year prior, for a total of 5.88 million travelers. Yet that’s still 83.6% of the pre-pandemic number, which indicates that while other countries are seeing international visitor growth the likes of which exceed their prepandemic average, America is still far behind.

©2024 Northstar Travel Media, LLC. Visit at travelpulse.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Hatch recalls nearly 1 million power adapters sold with baby sound machines

• July 8, 2024

Due to a shock hazard, a Palo Alto company is recalling nearly 1 million power adapters sold with sound machines marketed to help infants and young children sleep.

The plastic surrounding the AC power adapter that was supplied with some of Hatch’s Rest 1st generation sound machines can come off when removing the product from an outlet, leaving its prongs exposed, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said. That increases risks of electric shock.

There have been 19 reports of the plastic housing surrounding the adapter coming off, including two instances of consumers getting a minor electric shock, the CPSC said in its Wednesday recall notice.

The recall is specific to power adapters supplied by Jiangsu Chenyang Electron Co., Hatch said in a company announcement, adding that it is no longer sourcing from Jiangsu Chenyang for its products.

Hatch also noted that the issue is only with the adapter accompanying the sleeping machines, not the device itself. “Once a replacement power adapter is issued, the Hatch Rest 1st generation device is safe to continue using,” the company wrote.

In the meantime, consumers in possession of the faulty power adapters are urged to stop using them. The now-recalled adapters, which were manufactured in China, can be identified by their model number: CYAP05 050100U.

The adapters were sold with Rest 1st generation sound machines on Hatch.co, as well as major retailers including Target and Walmart, between January 2019 and September 2022. Some were also sold on Amazon through May 2024. The machines produce white noise or lullabies to help babies and young children sleep, and also have features including a night light.

An estimated 919,400 of them were purchased in the U.S., and over 44,000 in Canada. Hatch is offering a free replacement adapter to impacted customers and says it’s contacting all registered owners directly.

Consumers can learn more about registering for the recall on the company’s website.

​ Orange County Register 

The concierge catch: Better access for a few patients disrupts care for many

• July 8, 2024

John Rossheim | (TNS) KFF Health News

“You had to pay the fee, or the doctor wasn’t going to see you anymore.”

That was the takeaway for Terri Marroquin of Midland, Texas, when her longtime physician began charging a membership fee in 2019. She found out about the change when someone at the physician’s front desk pointed to a posted notice.

At first, she stuck with the practice; in her area, she said, it is now tough to find a primary care doctor who doesn’t charge an annual membership fee from $350 to $500.

But last year, Marroquin finally left to join a practice with no membership fee where she sees a physician assistant rather than a doctor. “I had had enough. The concierge fee kept going up, and the doctor’s office kept getting nicer and nicer,” she said, referring to the décor.

With the national shortage of primary care physicians reaching 17,637 in 2023 and projected to worsen, more Americans are paying for the privilege of seeing a doctor — on top of insurance premiums that cover most services a doctor might provide or order. Many people seeking a new doctor are calling a long list of primary care practices only to be told they’re not taking new patients.

“Concierge medicine potentially leads to disproportionately richer people being able to pay for the scarce resource of physician time and crowding out people who have lower incomes and are sicker,” said Adam Leive, lead author of a 2023 study on concierge medicine and researcher at University of California-Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy.

Leive’s research showed no decrease in mortality for concierge patients compared with similar patients who saw non-concierge physicians, suggesting concierge care may not notably improve some health outcomes.

A 2005 study showed concierge physicians had smaller proportions of patients with diabetes than their non-concierge counterparts and provided care for fewer Black and Hispanic patients.

There’s little reliable data available on the size of the concierge medicine market. But one market research firm projects that concierge medicine revenue will grow about 10.4% annually through 2030. About 5,000 to 7,000 physicians and practices provide concierge care in the United States, most of whom are primary care providers, according to Concierge Medicine Today. (Yes, the burgeoning field already has a trade publication.)

The concierge pitch is simple: More time with your doctor, in-person or remotely, promptly and at your convenience. With many primary care physicians caring for thousands of patients each in appointments of 15 minutes or less, some people who can afford the fee say they feel forced to pay it just to maintain adequate access to their doctor.

As primary care providers convert to concierge medicine, many patients could face the financial and health consequences of a potentially lengthy search for a new provider. With fewer physicians in non-concierge practices, the pool available to people who can’t or won’t pay is smaller. For them, it is harder to find a doctor.

Concierge care models vary widely, but all involve paying a periodic fee to be a patient of the practice.

These fees are generally not covered by insurance nor payable with a tax-advantaged flexible spending account or health savings account. Annual fees range from $199 for Amazon’s One Medical (with a discount available for Prime members) to low four figures for companies like MDVIP and SignatureMD that partner with physicians, to $10,000 or more for top-branded practices like Massachusetts General Hospital’s.

Many patients are exasperated with the prospect of pay-to-play primary care. For one thing, under the Affordable Care Act, insurers are required to cover a variety of preventive services without a patient paying out-of-pocket. “Your annual physical should be free,” said Caitlin Donovan, a spokesperson for the National Patient Advocate Foundation. “Why are you paying $2,000 for it?”

Liz Glatzer felt her doctor in Providence, Rhode Island, was competent but didn’t have time to absorb her full health history. “I had double mastectomy 25 years ago,” she said. “At my first physical, the doctor ran through my meds and whatever else, and she said, ‘Oh, you haven’t had a mammogram.’ I said, ‘I don’t have breasts to have mammography.’”

In 2023, after repeating that same exchange during her next two physicals, Glatzer signed up to pay $1,900 a year for MDVIP, a concierge staffing service that contracts with her new doctor, who is also a friend’s husband. In her first couple of visits, Glatzer’s new physician took hours to get to know her, she said.

For the growing numbers of Americans who can’t or won’t pay when their doctor switches to concierge care, finding new primary care can mean frustration, delayed or missed tests or treatments, and fragmented health care.

“I’ve met so many patients who couldn’t afford the concierge services and needed to look for a new primary care physician,” said Yalda Jabbarpour, director of the Robert Graham Center and a practicing family physician. Separating from a doctor who’s transitioning to concierge care “breaks the continuity with the provider that we know is so important for good health outcomes,” she said.

That disruption has consequences. “People don’t get the preventive services that they should, and they use more expensive and inefficient avenues for care that could have otherwise been provided by their doctor,” said Abbie Leibowitz, chief medical officer at Health Advocate, a company that helps patients find care and resolve insurance issues.

What happens to patients who find themselves at loose ends when a physician transitions to concierge practice?

Patients who lose their doctors often give up on having an ongoing relationship with a primary care clinician. They may rely solely on a pharmacy-based clinic or urgent care center or even a hospital emergency department for primary care.

Some concierge providers say they are responding to concerns about access and equity by allowing patients to opt out of concierge care but stay with the practice group at a lower tier of service. This might entail longer waits for shorter appointments, fewer visits with a physician, and more visits with midlevel providers, for example.

Deb Gordon of Cambridge, Massachusetts, said she is searching for a new primary care doctor after hers switched to concierge medicine — a challenge that involves finding someone in her network who has admitting privileges at her preferred hospitals and is accepting new patients.

Gordon, who is co-director of the Alliance of Professional Health Advocates, which provides support services to patient advocates, said the practice that her doctor left has not assigned her a new provider, and her health plan said it was OK if she went without one. “I was shocked that they literally said, ‘You can go to urgent care,’” she said.

Some patients find themselves turning to physician assistants and other midlevel providers. But those clinicians have much less training than physicians with board certification in family medicine or internal medicine and so may not be fully qualified to treat patients with complex health problems. “The expertise of physician assistants and nurse practitioners can really vary widely,” said Russell Phillips, director of the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care.

___

(KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Powell to face Fed critics in congress on high rates, bank rules

• July 8, 2024

By Amara Omeokwe | Bloomberg

Jerome Powell will face pressure this week from lawmakers growing impatient for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates and others who are unhappy with its latest plan to boost capital requirements for Wall Street lenders.

The Fed chair heads to Capitol Hill on Tuesday and Wednesday for his semiannual testimony, more than two years after he and his colleagues began hiking rates in a bid to curb surging inflation.

The hearings are Powell’s last scheduled public address to Congress ahead of the presidential election, and he’ll likely have to defend the central bank’s higher-for-longer policy stance as well as its claim to be independent of politics.

Fed officials in June pared back estimates of how many times they expect to lower borrowing costs this year, signaling they’ll hold rates at a two-decade high as they wait for more evidence inflation is headed down to their 2% target. Powell reiterated that message in comments last week, and declined to specify when rate cuts might begin.

Recent data indicate the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge slowed in May after a bumpy start to the year. A separate measure due Thursday is expected to show underlying inflation posted the smallest back-to-back monthly gains since August.

The labor market, however, is also cooling, and some Fed officials are beginning to warn about the risks of further slowing. June job gains, while still solid, were concentrated in health care and government, and prior months were revised lower. The unemployment rate climbed to 4.1%, the highest since late 2021.

Calls to cut

Democrats pressing for rate cuts say elevated borrowing costs are harming consumers already hit by high prices. As inflation remains top of mind for voters, the question of whether and when to cut rates is turning into a hot-button issue ahead of November’s presidential election.

At the Senate Banking Committee hearing on Tuesday, Senator Elizabeth Warren may press Powell for cuts, following the letter she and Democratic colleagues sent him last month demanding that the Fed follow the European Central Bank’s lead in easing monetary policy.

Other Democrats are walking a careful line to avoid accusations of meddling with the Fed’s independence, amid reports that former President Donald Trump could seek to curb the central bank’s power should he win another term.

Representative Jim Himes, who will hear from Powell on Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee, said no member of Congress should ever pressure the Fed to raise or lower interest rates.

“One of the cornerstones of our stable economy is our independent monetary policy, and if we start doing electoral politics and monetary policy, the other side will, and soon we will not have a stable economy,” the Connecticut Democrat said.

Others say the calls to cut rates are based more on an assessment of the economy than politics.

“We are making an argument based on data and what we believe it shows,” said Representative Brendan Boyle. Despite the overall strength of the economy, “I think the worry about an economic slowdown is at this point greater than the worry that we haven’t gotten exactly down to 2.0%.”

The Pennsylvania Democrat also expressed concern that mortgage rates, which are nearly double pre-pandemic levels, are making homes unaffordable and keeping people who’d like to move from selling their homes.

That’s in line with some economists who argue the Fed is restraining growth unnecessarily.

“We’re within spitting distance of the target. All the trend lines look good,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. He has called on the Fed to begin cutting rates immediately, in part because much of inflation’s stickiness above 2% is due to lagging measures of rents.

It could get increasingly complicated to cut rates as the election approaches, Zandi said: “Even though policymakers really don’t want to be influenced by the politics of the current time, they almost certainly are.”

Bank rules

Powell is also likely to face pointed questions over US plans to force Wall Street lenders to set aside significantly more capital. In March, the Fed chief said he expected “broad and material changes” to the proposal American regulators released last July that could require the eight largest US banks to hold about 19% more in capital as a cushion against financial shocks.

Republicans, including House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, blasted the original plan. McHenry and other GOP lawmakers last September urged regulators withdraw the proposal, arguing that it had “fatal problems” and could pose a risk to the financial system.

Powell hasn’t said whether the central bank, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will scrap the original plan. However, Fed officials recently showed other US regulators a three-page document of possible changes to the planned overhaul that would significantly lighten the load on big lenders.

In a preview of what else could be in store for Powell on Tuesday, Sen. Warren recently accused him of giving bank executives too much opportunity to influence the proposal.

Powell has maintained the Fed doesn’t take politics into account when setting policy.

“I do think support for the Fed’s independence is very high where it really matters on Capitol Hill, in both political parties, among the leaders and most of the following,” Powell said last week. “And so I worry about getting the job right.”

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