Audit The Fed Bill Introduced In Senate With Bipartisan Support

A bipartisan Senate pair introduced a bill to audit the Federal Reserve's emergency lending programs on Tuesday. The Federal Reserve Accountability Act would not intrude, the senators said, on the Fed's monetary policy or its role as "lender of last resort," but would authorize a Government Accountability Office investigation into actions it has taken to stabilize the global financial system.

"Transparency and accountability are fundamental principles of representative government," said freshman Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon). "During this financial crisis, Federal Reserve credit contributed greatly to the stabilization of the system. In doing so, the Federal Reserve departed significantly from its traditional relationship with markets and took on unprecedented new risks. Such a significant change in the Federal Reserve's traditional activities demands responsible, robust oversight. The Federal Reserve Accountability Act strikes the right balance between protecting taxpayer dollars and respecting the central bank's responsibility to manage monetary policy. "

The bill is co-sponsored by GOP Sen. Bob Corker, or Tennessee, widely respected within his caucus as an authority on financial affairs.

"The Federal Reserve has provided our financial system with emergency credit during this time of financial hardship, and in the course of doing so, has seen a $1.4 trillion increase in its balance sheet. Despite its independence, these are still taxpayer dollars at risk, and many Americans have called for an audit of the Fed," Corker said.

The bill would require the GAO to audit all remaining emergency lending programs not already subject to audit. The GAO, however, would be required to redact the names of the specific institutions involved in the lending. Finding out who the Fed has given money to is a principal goal of advocates of more transparency at the Fed. Those names would, however, be made available one year after each emergency program is no longer used.

The House is considering a more aggressive bill, sponsored by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), which has overwhelming support in the chamber and may be voted on later this year.

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Comments

[truthseeker7]

"The Federal Reserve has provided our financial system with emergency credit during this time of financial hardship, and in the course of doing so, has seen a $1.4 trillion increase in its balance sheet."

WTF is that about? The Fed doesn't provide us with anything. It only takes. Every cent that was made up, I mean out there as part of the bailout came out of the US taxpayer.

End the Fed and end the major source of our misery!

[Jive Dadson]

Follow the money. Since 2005, the junior senators Corker and Merkley have received millions in contributions from financial institutions and real estate companies. Corker is a real estate magnate.

This toothless bill is a dangerous diversion. The real bill is HR1207/SR604. (Yes, there is a senate version, and it has 30 co-sponsors.)

There are creepy crawly things under that rock, if Corker and Merkley have their way, the rock will never be turned over.

Huffpost, re-writing a press release is not journalism. Do some digging. Or take the plunge down the rabbit hole. There's a big story here. Rolling Stone is on it. Get busy!

[insanemembrane]

Linda Robinson, the lobbyist for the "politically independent" Fed probably helped them write this bill. This is a distraction and only deals with symptoms of the problem, not the cause.

HR1207/S604 already have plenty of cosponsors. No need to do all that leg work for a half-measure.

[siasina]

We've never been so close before, don't give up now.

HR1207 in the house has 304 co-sponsors and S604 has 30 co-sponsors currently. Call your senators, call your congressmen, and demand a full audit.

[siasina]

DO NOT support this bill. It's watered down.

Support HR1207 and S604

[sharpsteve]

Your right! Don't be fooled by the bait and switch.

[knosiswar]

This bill is designed to water down Ron Pauls Bill.

This is not a win for the people, this is only an attempt to pacify the masses with a snow job.

Don't be fooled.

We need term limits for Senators. It's obvious the banks and corporations are the sole constituents of the great majority of Senators.

[joebhed]

This is great news indeed, and it our job now to grow the list of co-sponsors in support of this Corker-Merkley Bill,(?) .
Corker correctly observes the very real fact of a minimal $1.3 Trillion contingent liability against US taxpayers, knowing the amount is several times that.

Fed independence?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H_wHvmBr1I

and here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9aFglNwlvk

The Fed claims independence to hide the possible failure to prevent the collapse, and the role it is presently playing by its cowboy-style quantitaive monetary easing, also known as QE.
Contrast with Japan, where the government plays a much closer, open role in national monetary policy. There the PLAN for a QE strategy is first developed, with goals and benchmarks.
When its not working, you know it, and you know what failed.
Without a policy that calls for public disclosure of the private banks' QE strategy, there can be NO accountability, and there can be no recourse for the taxpayers that are on the hook.
Already Fed vice-Chair Dr. Donald Kohn has explained that we might not be getting our interest payment refund.
So many Fed defenders think it is written in the Act that we get that payment.
Just another bankers slush-fund.
We cannot progress with an exit strategy FROM the debt-money system of the private bankers at the Federal Reserve unless we can have an independent review of the state of affairs of the money system.

[ThomH]

The audit bills surfacing in Congress are just one facet of growing dissatisfaction with the Fed. What needs more airing is the movement to end the Fed entirely, at least as we know it, along with fractional reserve banking. We need more discussion about the claim that our present money and banking system is doomed to fail in just the kind of credit crunch we see now, because debt cannot just keep increasing forever, as fractional reserve banking requires.

Ron Paul's new book is called "End the Fed". Dennis Kucinich called in to the American Monetary Institute conference in Chicago last month announcing that he will soon introduce a bill into Congress for the monetary reform favored by AMI, ending the Fed as it currently exists and putting an end to fractional reserve banking.

Critics like Ellen Brown and Stephen Zarlenga insist that the present inherently unstable system can be replaced in just a few years with a truly stable and sustainable one based on creation of money by the Treasury rather than banks. At the same time, we can extinquish the national debt - pay it down to zero - with no inflation, and end forever borrowing money at interest to fund Federal deficits. No more interest payments, which amount to some 40% of income tax revenue, about equalling the deficit in recent years.

I have searched in vain for a year to find a cogent rebuttal to this thesis. If it is too good to be true, let's

[ThomH]

HuffPo dropped two words at the end of my post. The last sentence should read "If it is too good to be true, let's hear why."



Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/20/audit-the-fed-bill-introd_n_327642.html