The Capitol Column | Natalie Littlefield | Saturday, July 07, 2012
Congressman Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed bill, H.R. 459 was passed unanimously by the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform. A passage of the bill would change current law that prohibits Congress from auditing the Federal Reserve Bank’s monetary policy operations.
The bill states that “an audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks… shall be completed before the end of 2012.”
The proposed law says the audit report “shall include a detailed description of the findings and conclusion of the Comptroller General with respect to the audit that is the subject of the report, together with such recommendations for legislative or administrative action as the Comptroller General may determine to be appropriate.”
Audits of the Board and Federal Reserve banks may not include—
(1) transactions for or with a foreign central bank, government of a foreign country, or nonprivate international financing organization;
(2) deliberations, decisions, or actions on monetary policy matters, including discount window operations, reserves of member banks, securities credit, interest on deposits, and open market operations;
(3) transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee; or
(4) a part of a discussion or communication among or between members of the Board and officers and employees of the Federal Reserve System related to clauses (1)–(3) of this subsection”
Mr. Paul and his supporters accuse the Federal Reserve Bank of mishandling the currency of the United States. In a letter describing the latest victory for the bill, Mr. Paul writes “The Fed has relentlessly increased the supply of U.S. dollars and kept interest rates artificially low. These monetary policies punish thrift, erode the value of savings, and harm older Americans living on fixed incomes and the poor. The Fed’s expansion of the money supply, combined with artificially low interest rates, creates destructive cycles of malinvestment.”
He further explains that the Frank-Dodd Act did not go far enough in regulating the Fed, saying that “the audit mandated applies only to emergency credit programs, and only on procedural issues rather than on the substantive details of the lending transactions. Most of the data on its other activities, such as open market operations and discount window lending, have only been published as a result of lawsuits — not congressional action.”
The Libertarians’ long-standing priority has been to shut down the Federal Reserve Bank, and so the bill’s first win is a positive step for the party. The Audit the Fed bill, which has 263 cosponsors, was passed with all major audit provisions intact. Now it will go to a House floor vote in late July.
Republican Ron Paul will complete his term as a U.S. Representative from Texas at the end of this year. Although Mitt Romney is presumed to be the GOP candidate for the U.S. Presidency, Ron Paul is continuing to campaign for the spot and is planning a major rally ahead of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.
Read more: http://www.capitolcolumn.com/news/ron-paul-secures-major-victory-audit-the-fed-moves-to-house-floor/#ixzz1zytQvo9y
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