Overnight Finance: Top Fed official resigns over leak | Trump SEC pick clears panel | WH denies considering carbon, value-added taxes

Richmond Fed’s president resigns, admits to leaking confidential information: The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond unexpectedly resigned Tuesday and admitted to confirming leaked information about potential Fed policy changes to a financial analyst.

Jeffrey Lacker, who was set to retire in October, announced his immediate resignation Tuesday afternoon.

“I apologize to my colleagues and the public I’ve been privileged to serve,” said Lacker. “I regret that in this instance, I crossed the line in confirming information that should have remained confidential.”

The confidential information included potential monetary policy adjustments considered by the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC), the Fed’s policymaking arm that raises and reduces interest rates. Information about potential Fed policy changes is highly guarded to prevent insider trading. I’ve got more here: http://bit.ly/2oyLeVF.

Hoyer: GOP will need Dems’ help to prevent shutdown: The GOP will need Democrats’ help to prevent a government shutdown later this month, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) predicted Tuesday.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Republicans control the lower chamber with an overwhelming 44-seat advantage, but conservative deficit hawks have opposed their party’s spending bills in recent years because they’ve broken through caps established by the 2011 Budget Control Act.

{mosads}Hoyer, the Democratic whip, said those dynamics haven’t changed simply because Republicans now control the White House, too. And he’s warning Ryan and GOP leaders that they’ll need to reach across the aisle to secure a bipartisan deal if they hope to keep the government open beyond April 28, when current funding expires. Here’s more from The Hill’s Mike Lillis: http://bit.ly/2oyQskt.

Trump SEC pick clears banking panel with Dem support: The Senate Banking Committee approved Jay Clayton, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, on Tuesday, with some bipartisan support.

The Banking panel voted to recommend Jay Clayton 15 to 8, with Democratic Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Jon Tester (Mont.) and Mark Warner (Va.) voting for the nominee along with all committee Republicans.

Clayton, former partner at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, has spent more than 20 years working for Wall Street titans on mergers, acquisitions and federal regulatory compliance.

Heitkamp and Tester are both up for reelection in 2018 in states that President Trump won in 2016, while Warner started a new term this year.

Other Democrats expressed concerns that Clayton was too close to Wall Street to police it effectively. I’ve got more here: http://bit.ly/2oyOvEp.

Happy Tuesday and welcome to Overnight Finance. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.

See something I missed? Let me know at slane@digital-staging.thehill.com or tweet me @SylvanLane. And if you like your newsletter, you can subscribe to it here: http://bit.ly/1NxxW2N.

On tap tomorrow

• House Financial Services Committee: Hearing on the 2017 Semi-Annual Reports of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 10 a.m. http://bit.ly/2nEbScE.
• Joint Economic Committee: Hearing entitled “The Decline of Economic Opportunity in the United States: Causes and Consequences,” http://bit.ly/2nEz0r6.
• Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy: Hearing entitled “The Current State of Retirement Security in the United States,” 3 p.m. http://bit.ly/2nEBgPn.

Union chief: Trump pulled ‘bait-and-switch’ on working-class voters: President Trump pulled a “switcheroozy” on working-class voters after the 2016 election, the nation’s top labor leader said Tuesday.

The president campaigned on the promise of helping workers find high-paying jobs. But AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told reporters that Trump’s failed attempt to repeal ObamaCare would’ve hurt many of the same working-class voters who helped elect him.

The labor boss also criticized moves by Trump to roll back health and safety protections for workers during a speech to the National Press Club.

“If you pull a bait-and-switch on working people, if you say that you’re with us and then attack us, you’re going to fail,” Trumka said. The Hill’s Tim Devaney reports: http://bit.ly/2oyMjgq.

White House denies it’s considering carbon tax, value-added tax: The White House on Tuesday said it’s not looking at a carbon tax or a value-added tax (VAT), pushing back on a report that it was considering the new taxes as part of a tax reform plan.

“As we have said many times, the President’s team is hearing input from experts on all sides of the tax reform debate as we formulate what will ultimately be the President’s plan to enact the first significant tax reform since 1986,” White House deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters said in a statement.

“As of now, neither a carbon tax nor a VAT are under consideration.”

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the Trump administration was considering creating a carbon tax and a VAT as part of tax reform: http://bit.ly/2oz376J.

Hatch calls for vote on trade nominee: A top Senate Republican is planning to move forward with a committee vote on President Trump’s nominee to head the nation’s trade office despite an ongoing feud with Democrats over the process.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said Tuesday that the panel will vote Thursday on the nomination of Robert Lighthizer to serve as the U.S. trade representative (USTR).

But the nomination is being held up over Democrats’ insistence that a congressional waiver for Lighthizer be tied to legislation providing retirement and healthcare benefits to coal miners.

“Mr. Lighthizer’s nomination has been subject to unprecedented delay and unrelated demands for far too long, and we cannot afford to have this crucial position void of leadership any longer,” Hatch said in a statement: http://bit.ly/2oyL9Bl.

Religious groups urge Congress to keep limit on church political activity: Nearly 100 religious groups on Tuesday urged Congress to preserve the “Johnson Amendment,” which bars churches and other tax-exempt nonprofits from endorsing political candidates.

“Current law serves as a valuable safeguard for the integrity of our charitable sector and campaign finance system,” the groups, which include the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and the Hindu American Foundation, said in a letter to lawmakers.

The letter comes as Republicans are pushing to do away with the Johnson Amendment, which they argue infringes on religious leaders’ First Amendment rights.

President Trump said in February that he would “totally destroy” the measure, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) has said that repeal of the amendment would be included in tax-reform legislation. Naomi Jagoda has more: http://bit.ly/2oyOaBz.

IRS starting private debt collection program this week: The IRS said Tuesday that it is beginning its private debt collection program this week.

The program is being started as a result of a law that Congress passed in 2015. Typically, taxpayers whose accounts will be given to private collectors are people whom the IRS has contacted multiple times in the past several years and still have unpaid taxes, IRS officials said.

The agency this week will start sending letters to a few hundred people informing them that their accounts are being transferred to private debt collection agencies. The program will grow over time, and the IRS expects to send several thousand letters a week by the end of the summer, said Mary Beth Murphy, commissioner of the IRS’s small-business and self-employed division: http://bit.ly/2oyY8mw.

Write us with tips, suggestions and news: slane@digital-staging.thehill.com, vneedham@digital-staging.thehill.com, and njagoda@digital-staging.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @SylvanLane,  @VickofTheHill and @NJagoda.