Let's Audit the Federal Reserve!
Congressman Ron Paul from Texas introduced H.R. 1207 recently, which is a bill that would force the Federal Reserve to open their books and allow the people of the United States to see what they have been up to. Let's take a look at the actual bill.
The Bill
111th Congress - 1st Session
H.R. 1207
A BILL
To amend title 31, United States Code, to reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States and the manner in which such audits are reported, and for other purposes.
1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009″.SEC. 2. AUDIT REFORM AND TRANSPARENCY FOR THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM.
(a) IN GENERAL. - Subsection (b) of section 714 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking all after “shall audit an agency” and inserting a period.
(b) AUDIT. - Section 714 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
“(e) AUDIT AND REPORT OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM. -
“(1) IN GENERAL. - The audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks under subsection (b) shall be completed before the end of 2010.
“(2) REPORT -
“(A) REQUIRED. - A report on the audit referred to in paragraph (1) shall be submitted by the Comptroller General to the Congress before the end of the 90-day period beginning on the date on which such audit is completed and made available to the Speaker of the House, the majority and minority leaders of the House of Representatives, the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the committee and each sub-committee of jurisdiction in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and any other Member of Congress who requests it.
“(B) CONTENTS. - The report under subparagraph (A) 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.”.
This bill simply requires an audit of the Federal Reserve, and a report that discusses what was found during the audit. Many people may think this sounds pretty elementary and basic, but the fact is, there has never been an audit of the Federal Reserve system since it was founded in 1913. This may seem crazy, and that's because it is! Why would a body that governs and essentially determines our monetary policy and even prints all of our money, be allowed to keep all of their inner workings secret? Obviously this should not be the case.
The intent of this bill does not seem to be to change anything about what the Federal Reserve does, or how they act; it simply aims to add transparency to the Federal Reserve so that taxpayers can see where their tax dollars are going. The Federal Reserve has introduced so many lending facilities in the past 12-18 months, putting trillions and trillions of taxpayers dollars on the line, how could anyone be against some transparency for this Institution?
As of today, congressman Paul's bill has 44 co-sponsors. This is good news, and lets hope that the support continues to grow. This bill should be a no-brainer for anyone in congress that actually cares about the Ameican People.
Any representative in the House or the Senate that would be opposed to a bill like this should never be re-elected in my opinion. There is no logical reason that I can think of as to why the details of these Federal Reserve programs should be closed from taxpayer view when taxpayers are ultimately the ones footing the bill.
This page has information about how you can contact your representative and urge them to vote for this bill!