Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 24, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, directs the GAO to conduct a full audit of the Federal Reserve. The Dodd-Frank legislation mandated a GAO audit of the Fed, but that audit issued by the GAO in July of 2011 focused solely on certain issues concerning emergency credit facilities. GAO remains restricted under the current law from conducting a broader audit of the Fed that includes, for instance, a review of the Fed's monetary policy operations and its agreements with foreign governments and central banks. Under this bill, the GAO, as the investigative arm of Congress, is allowed to conduct the audit that reviews all these transactions and is required to report such findings of the audit to Congress. Now, while Congress should not manage the details of monetary policy, it needs to be able to conduct oversight of the Fed. The Fed was created by Congress to be a central bank independent of influence of the U.S. Treasury. It was never intended to be a second Treasury Department. In recent years, the Fed's extraordinary interventions into the economy and financial markets have led some to call into question its independence. The Fed remains ultimately responsible to the American people and their elected representatives. This is why H.R. 24 has strong bipartisan support, with 228 cosponsors on both sides of the aisle.…”