The House has voted to audit the Federal Reserve, backing an issue promoted by Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, in his presidential campaigns.
Paul applauded the passage of the bill Tuesday by a bipartisan vote of 327 to 98. His bill, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, calls for a full audit of the Federal Reserve System.The bill would give the Government Accountability Office the ability to review the Federal Reserve board of governors' decisionmaking on issues such as monetary policy.
“I am very pleased that the House passed my Audit the Fed legislation today,” Paul said in a statement. “It has been a long, hard fight, but Congress finally is getting serious about exercising its oversight responsibility over the Federal Reserve. Auditing the Fed is a commonsense issue supported by the overwhelming majority of the American people. The Fed’s trillions of dollars’ worth of asset purchases and its ongoing support of foreign central banks cannot be allowed to continue without congressional oversight. Today’s passage of H.R. 459 is a good first step towards full Fed transparency, and I hope that the Senate will consider the bill before the end of the year.”
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has consistently argued against conducting a full audit of the Federal Reserve, contending it would interfere with the decisionmaking process.
