Overnight Finance: Yellen heads to the Hill

TOMORROW STARTS TONIGHT: JANET YELLEN PREPS FOR HILL HOT SEAT. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen will testify before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday morning for the first time since Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and GOPers took back control of the upper chamber. Her testimony comes as Fed-watchers looking carefully for clues about when Yellen and Fed policymakers will raise interest rates. It also comes as lawmakers have raised serious concerns about the bank's transparency, with Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) calling for changes at the bank -- albeit through very different policy proposals. -- JEFF KEARNS FOR BLOOMBERG: "The Fed is being pressured from the left and the right. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and other Democrats have blasted the central bank for being too cozy with the banks it oversees. Republicans, including potential 2016 presidential contender Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, have focused on its aggressive monetary policy. Lawmakers from both parties are demanding greater transparency and accountability from an institution that has the power to impose capital requirements for banks and influence how much Americans pay for a mortgage or an auto loan." http://bloom.bg/1whtygf -- VICKI NEEDHAM FOR THE HILL:  “A Senate Democrat on Monday reintroduced legislation aimed at ramping up the accountability of the New York Federal Reserve. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) is pressing for a bill that would require a congressional confirmation process for the president of the New York Fed over concerns about the bank's ability to effectively monitor Wall Street's behavior. “’If the governors of the Federal Reserve System are required to be confirmed by the Senate, then the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who played a central and perhaps more powerful role in overseeing taxpayer dollars during the financial crisis, should also be subject to public scrutiny,’” he said in a statement. Reed said that measure aims to boost public scrutiny of the Fed branch because of the unique role the bank plays in implementing monetary policy and enforcing banking laws because ‘it’s too influential to be left unchecked.’” Read more here: http://bit.ly/1vtzCRS THIS IS OVERNIGHT FINANCE. Talk about a manic Monday. Tweet: @kevcirilli; email: kcirilli@thehill.com; and subscribe: http://thehill.com/signup/48. I'll be on Fox News tomorrow at 11 a.m. if you want to tune in. TICK TOCK - - TIME RUNNING OUT FOR DHS FUNDING. The Hill's Rebecca Shabad has every angle covered: "Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson ramped up efforts on Monday to pressure Congress to fund his department by the Friday deadline, stressing that a lack of new funding would harm national security. 'The clock is ticking. As I stand here, there is nothing from Congress to fund us from beyond that point,' Johnson said at a press conference at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services headquarters in Washington, D.C." -- WHAT HAPPENS IF TIME RUNS OUT? Shabad reports: Employees from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stood behind Johnson, who explained 75 to 80 percent of his workforce would be forced to work without pay if the department shuts down. About 30,000 employees would also be furloughed, Johnson said, including staff who work at DHS headquarters who 'stay one step ahead' of terrorist groups like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), threats to aviation security, illegal migration on the southern U.S. border and weather conditions." http://bit.ly/1MNqmxv THE SCENE - - PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA taking the podium at AARP's headquarters in Washington, D.C., as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sat directly behind him on the stage. The step-and-repeat backdrop Obama and Warren spoke from was imprinted with logos of prominent groups like AARP - - and also Better Markets, a progressive group Obama and Warren will need to push through regulations that failed to gain traction in 2010. More fiduciary fallout... ELIZABETH WARREN, OBAMA TEAM UP FOR NEW REGS. My latest for The Hill: "President Obama moved ahead Monday with plans to impose contentious new regulations against financial advisers. In a speech to the AARP, Obama said the rules are needed to better protect Americans from financial advisers who sell faulty advice in order to pocket commissions from big banks... The business community says that the new regulations — known as the "fiduciary rule" — would limit financial advice access to low- and middle-income Americans because it would remove incentives for financial advisers to take on less lucrative accounts. -- OBAMA: "You should have the peace of mind that the advice you're getting is sound, that your investments are being protected." -- WARREN: "It's about to time to do something that we should've done long ago to end the kickbacks, the free vacations and the fancy cars... to ensure that all of our retirement advisers and not just some of them are looking out for the people they serve." -- HILL FALL OUT: Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) will introduce legislation this week aimed at stopping the regulations from going forward. "This rule making will only end up harming the very people that it aims to protect by limiting access for Americans who are seeking advice from their financial advisers on retirement decisions," Wagner said in a statement. My story: http://bit.ly/1vsWIrS WILL ALDEN LEAVES THE TIMES FOR BUZZFEED. DealBook's William Alden announced today that he's leaving The New York Times' DealBook blog to report for Buzzfeed. The rising star in the business journalism world tweeted: "I'm joining BuzzFeed to cover the machers of Silicon Valley. Based in SF. Very excited. And sad to leave my wonderful NYT colleagues." His tweet:http://bit.ly/1ACC2gh Good luck, Will! We'll be reading... ABOUT LAST NIGHT - - HOLLYWOOD'S PAY GAP. Eric Morath in The Wall Street Journal: "Actress Patricia Arquette's plea to address the wage disparity between female and male workers received a rousing ovation from Meryl Streep and other Hollywood royalty on Sunday. One reason: When it comes to the gender gap in wages, the entertainment industry looks like the rest of us. "In accepting the Academy Award for best supporting actress, Ms. Arquette brought the earnings issue to center stage. 'We have fought for everybody else's equal rights, it's our time to have wage equality once and for all,' she said. 'And equal rights for women in the United States of America.' "Women working full-time in the U.S. last year earned 82.5 cents for every dollar a man earned, according to the Labor Department's weekly wage data. In the arts, entertainment, sports and media industry, women fared only slightly better, earning 85% of their male counterparts' pay." http://on.wsj.com/1DKRfPW QUOTABLE, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman speaking about the need to fast-track trade at a Washington forum: "Trade promotion legislation is the way Congress gives direction to the president about what to negotiate, how to consult with Congress before and during the negotiations and how Congress will decide at the end of the day — after an extensive public debate — whether to support or reject a trade agreement." Our Vicki Needham reports: http://bit.ly/1DfavlT COMMUNITY BANKERS TAKE AIM AT FED. Cheyenne Hopkins and Jeff Kearns for Bloomberg: "The Independent Community Bankers of America has stepped up its support for a proposal to strip the Federal Reserve Bank of New York of its permanent vote on monetary policy and share it with the other regional Fed banks... "The Washington-based industry group representing 6,500 community banks has said they are subject to the same scrutiny and oversight as major lenders, imposing a regulatory burden that puts them at a disadvantage, even though they are much smaller and don't present the same risks to financial stability." http://bloom.bg/1zVLXK8 EX-IM WATCH - - OFFICIALS REMOVE PUBLIC DISCLOSURES. My piece from Sunday for the hometown paper: Critics of the Export-Import Bank are seething over the removal from a government Web site of previously public data they say helps them detect cronyism. Between January 29 and February 13, officials at the bank removed disclosures listing businesses that applied for financing at the bank but were denied, a source at the bank told The Hill. -- HOW IT'S PLAYING: Senior House GOP aide tells me that "everybody knows Ex-Im picks winners and losers. Now Ex-Im is making itself even less transparent in order to hide some of the losers." ... Heritage Action's Dan Holler says "Lawmakers are smart enough to know the bank is hiding the ball." ... GMU's Mercatus Center's Veronique de Rugy says "We have less information even about how the winners are picked because we can't compare with who was denied... We can't try to find a trend or a rhyme or reason for why one is accepted and the other is denied." -- EXIM DEFENDS DATA REMOVAL: Bank spokesman Matthew Bevens told The Hill that bank's officials take "very seriously its commitment to transparency and its mission of supporting American businesses as they expand their sales through exports while creating jobs here at home." Bevens said that "staff continuously and thoroughly reviews how the data is posted in the interest of transparency and open data, without harming the ability of our customers to export their products, create jobs, and compete fairly in the global marketplace." Story: http://bit.ly/1vquGgJ -- TEA PARTY BLASTS FINCHER'S BILL, via me: A prominent Tea Party group on Monday sent a critical letter to House Republicans who are supporting Rep. Stephen Fincher's (R-Tenn.) five-year reauthorization proposal for the Export-Import Bank. Americans for Prosperity vice president for government affairs Brent Gardner criticized the lawmakers for supporting what he called 'deeply flawed legislation.' http://bit.ly/1Aoxmvq Write us with tips, suggestions and news: vneedham@thehill.com; pschroeder@thehill.com; bbecker@thehill.com;rshabad@thehill.com; kcirilli@thehill.com. --Follow us on Twitter: @VickofTheHill; @PeteSchroeder; @BernieBecker3; @RebeccaShabad and @kevcirilli.