On The Money: Trump Fed pick owes $75K to IRS, government claims | Dems seeking Trump financial info going back 10 years | GOP bill links paid parental leave to Social Security | Pentagon transfers $1B for wall

Happy Wednesday and welcome back to On The Money. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.

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THE BIG DEAL–Trump Fed pick Moore owes $75K to IRS, government claims: The U.S. government is claiming that Stephen Moore, President Trump’s pick to serve on the Federal Reserve Board, owes more than $75,000 to the IRS, according to court records.

A lien was entered against Moore in January 2018 for unpaid taxes from the 2014 tax year and additional taxes and penalties that may accrue. The unpaid balance was $75,328.80, according to a filing in circuit court in Montgomery County, Md.

{mosads}A court clerk told The Guardian that Moore hasn’t yet satisfied the claim.

Moore told The Guardian that he disputed the IRS’s claim but was hoping to reach an agreement with the agency.

“For several years I have been working through a dispute with the IRS, attempting to be returned what my attorneys and accountant believe were tax overpayments of tens of thousands of dollars,” Moore said in a statement to the news outlet. The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda explains here.

 

LEADING THE DAY

House Dems seeking Trump financial info going back 10 years: Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee have requested information from a tax and accounting firm about President Trump’s finances going back 10 years, according to a letter sent to the firm and released Wednesday.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the chairman of the panel, released a letter he sent to the firm Mazars USA LLP requesting information about Trump’s finances going back to Jan. 1, 2009. He released the letter after two Republicans on the panel shared news of the request earlier in the day.

Cummings wrote in his letter dated March 20 that his request was spurred by testimony from Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, who told lawmakers earlier this year that Trump often inflated or deflated his net worth for “potentially improper purposes.”

The Hill’s Tal Axelrod has more on the request here.

 

And don’t forget, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) told The Hill on Tuesday that her committee has begun to receive financial records from Deutsche Bank detailing their relationship with President Trump.

 

The House passed the Paycheck Fairness Act: A bill aimed at strengthening protections against wage discrimination and holding employers accountable passed the House mostly along party lines on Wednesday.

The chamber voted 242-187 for the Paycheck Fairness Act, with seven Republicans joining Democrats in voting for the bill. It was co-sponsored by 238 Democrats and GOP Rep. Chris Smith (N.J.).

Proponents of the legislation argue it’s a necessary step to close the wage gap. It has been introduced multiple times since 1997 to amend the Equal Pay Act and Fair Labor Standards Act, and was reintroduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) in January.

Seven Republicans joined Democrats in backing the bill.

The Hill’s Juliegrace Brufke has the details here.

 

GOP lawmakers offer paid parental leave legislation linked to Social Security: A group of Republicans on Wednesday introduced legislation that would allow people to pull forward some of their Social Security benefits to use for paid parental leave — the latest effort from Republicans on paid leave in recent weeks.

Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) introduced legislation in the Senate, while Reps. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) and Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) offered a companion bill in the House.

“Our proposal would enact paid family leave in America without increasing taxes, without placing new mandates on small businesses,” Rubio said in a news conference.

How it works: Under the legislation, new parents would have the option to get early Social Security benefits for up to three months to finance paid parental leave. A fact sheet from Rubio and Romney said most parents below the median household income would be able to receive a benefit that would replace about two-thirds of their wages.

 

Democratic counteroffers: Meanwhile, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and other Democrats reintroduced their own paid family leave bill last month, which would allow people to take paid family and medical leave for up to 12 weeks and would be paid for through small increases in payroll taxes.

Supporters of Gillibrand’s bill have criticized GOP proposals, arguing that people shouldn’t feel like they have to choose between paid leave and receiving Social Security when they retire.

 

Pentagon transfers $1B to help build Trump’s wall: The Pentagon has moved ahead with its plan to transfer $1 billion from its accounts to help build President Trump’s border wall, despite congressional backlash and the possibility that the Defense Department will lose its ability to move dollars between accounts in the future.

Defense Department Chief Financial Officer David Norquist told lawmakers on Wednesday that the money was transferred to the Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday night.

The reprogramming of funds comes after Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.), chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, rejected the Pentagon’s bid to shift the money, adding his weight to the growing group of lawmakers that have condemned the move.

The Hill’s Ellen Mitchell has the latest on the funding fight over the wall.

 

GOP senator says Special Olympics cuts will not be approved: Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that determines Department of Education funding levels, on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to the Special Olympics.

“I’m a longtime supporter of the Special Olympics and proud that Missouri is home to the largest Special Olympics training facility in the world,” Blunt said in a statement.

“I was just at the World Games and saw, as I have many times before, what a huge impact the organization has on athletes, their families, and their communities. Our Department of Education appropriations bill will not cut funding for the program,” he added.

 

Major backlash: The chairman of the Special Olympics also fired back at Education Secretary Betsy DeVos after she cut all federal funding for the Special Olympics in her department’s proposed budget for fiscal 2020.

“The federal government, if it believes in full inclusion — and it does, our Constitution, our Declaration and our laws tell us we do — and if the federal government has a role to support that, it ought to be investing in kids with special needs,” Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver said on MSNBC Wednesday.

“Give these young people the chance to shine, to tell their stories, as you’ve heard. The country is starving for this.

 

DeVos knocks the media: DeVos hit back on Wednesday, denouncing what she described as “shameful” media coverage of “falsehoods” about the Department of Education’s proposed cuts to the Special Olympics.

“It is unacceptable, shameful and counterproductive that the media and some members of Congress have spun falsehoods and fully misrepresented the facts,” DeVos said in a statement.

DeVos said she had “personally supported” the Special Olympics but added that it raises more than $100 million every year in private donations.

She also said there are “dozens of worthy nonprofits” supporting students and adults with disabilities “that don’t get a dime of federal grant money.”

She did not identify what “falsehoods” the media allegedly perpetrated.

 

GOOD TO KNOW

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) re-introduced legislation requiring the president, vice president and their family members to divest from any financial holdings that could create conflicts of interest.
• Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday slammed Republicans over health care policies in their proposed budget, going after what he claimed to be a “hatred” of providing health coverage.
• Almost seven out of ten American workers fear the won’t have enough money to retire comfortably in retirement, according to a survey from Prudential Financial.
• Senate Democrats are moving to try to rein in President Trump’s tariff authority, marking the latest sign of pushback on Capitol Hill over the administration’s trade policies.
• Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has declined to testify before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that determines how much funding his department receives, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said Wednesday.
• Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday became the first presidential hopeful of the 2020 cycle to release her 2018 tax return, holding up the disclosure as a sign to other candidates to follow suit.
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Wednesday unveiled plans to target corporate agricultural, pledging to break up monopolies and support family farmers, as part of her 2020 presidential campaign platform.

 

ODDS AND ENDS

• President Trump on Wednesday revealed he had met with Google CEO Sundar Pichai to discuss the company’s work in China and allegations of anti-conservative bias.
• The five largest publicly-owned oil and gas companies in the world have invested over $1 billion in shareholder funds in the three years following the Paris climate agreement on “misleading climate-related branding and lobbying,” according to a new report from InfluenceMap.