A proposal on which U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, has been working for much of the last decade is getting close to reality: an audit-the-Federal-Reserve requirement that has been approved in the U.S. House and is pending in the Senate as an amendment to a piece of financial-reform legislation.
"They're still negotiating," said a spokeswoman for the congressman's office. "We're very hopeful that it's going to be included, maybe ... by the end of next week."
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas |
She told WND that Paul would be pleased to have it pass as it stands.
The plan, now pending before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs after being approved by the House at the close of 2009, would provide for "an audit of all actions taken by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks during the current economic crisis."
It provides for the Comptroller General of the U.S. to issue a report on the audit to Congress "and make such report available to the public."
It's about time, wrote Alex Newman in a commentary at The New American.
"Congress should swiftly audit the Fed. And after the American people find out what has been going on, it should be promptly abolished," he wrote.
"Instituting sound money is the best step that could be taken to ensure prosperity and prevent future economic calamity. And amidst the current heated debate on the role of the Fed, the time has never been better to accomplish it."
That pretty much aligns with what Paul has been trying to do at least for the last decade.
"Obviously, ideally [a congressional plan] would end the Fed. Short of that, what was passed in the House is satisfactory," Paul's spokeswoman told WND.
Newman's commentary suggested that it looks as though there's a reason Fed information should become more readily available.
"After hiring lobbyists last year to protect its interests amidst increasing public and congressional scrutiny, the Federal Reserve banking cartel is stepping up the fight to keep and possibly expand its regulatory regime while maintaining its secrecy," the commentary reported.
"In a speech at the Institute of International Bankers ... president Jeffery Lacker of the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank claimed the unaccountable body should keep its powers and that it was being used as a 'scapegoat' to deflect fury over the bailouts," Newman wrote. "Dallas Fed president and C.E.O. Richard Fisher appeared before the Council on Foreign Relations and made a similar argument."
Fed chief Ben Bernanke also has opposing suggestions that the Fed be audited, or be forced to relinquish any of its secrecy.
Paul's proposal earned majority support in the House simply from its cosponsors.
But it then was gutted in committee, and Paul blamed Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., the chairman. Watt's congressional district includes Charlotte, headquarters of Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. lender.
Further investigation through OpenSecrets.org reveals the largest share of Watt's campaign contributions in the 2008 election cycle came from the finance, insurance and real-estate industries.
But the plan then was revived, by being added to the financial-reform package as an amendment. It was then approved and forwarded to the Senate.
Paul long has been a critic of the secrecy of the Federal Reserve.
"Throughout its nearly 100-year history, the Federal Reserve has presided over the near-complete destruction of the United States dollar," he has said. "Since 1913, the dollar has lost over 95 percent of its purchasing power, aided and abetted by the Federal Reserve's loose monetary policy."
"Since its inception, the Federal Reserve has always operated in the shadows, without sufficient scrutiny or oversight of its operations," Paul said when the original plan to audit the Fed was introduced. "While the conventional excuse is that this is intended to reduce the Fed's susceptibility to political pressures, the reality is that the Fed acts as a foil for the government. Whenever you question the Fed about the strength of the dollar, they will refer you to the Treasury, and vice versa. The Federal Reserve has, on the one hand, many of the privileges of government agencies, while retaining benefits of private organizations, such as being insulated from Freedom of Information Act requests."
Paul has warned, "The Federal Reserve can enter into agreements with foreign central banks and foreign governments, and the GAO is prohibited from auditing or even seeing these agreements. Why should a government-established agency, whose police force has federal law-enforcement powers, and whose notes have legal-tender status in this country, be allowed to enter into agreements with foreign powers and foreign banking institutions with no oversight? Particularly when hundreds of billions of dollars of currency swaps have been announced and implemented, the Fed's negotiations with the European Central Bank, the Bank of International Settlements, and other institutions should face increased scrutiny, most especially because of their significant effect on foreign policy. If the State Department were able to do this, it would be characterized as a rogue agency and brought to heel, and if a private individual did this he might face prosecution under the Logan Act, yet the Fed avoids both fates."
WND previously reported the Fed, despite being ordered to disclose to whom it awarded some $2 trillion in discount "stimulus" loans, continues its fight for secrecy.