Over a decade ago, Congressman Ron Paul first introduced a bill to audit the Federal Reserve.
On February 5th, his son, Senator Rand Paul introduced the Federal Transparency Act of 2013, which would eliminate certain restrictions on the Government Accountability Office (GOA) when conducting a full audit of the Fed.
Echoing his father’s sentiments, Senator Paul explained his concern over the Fed’s actions saying,
"The Fed's operations under a cloak of secrecy have gone on too long and the American people have a right to know what the Federal Reserve is doing with our nation's money supply."
Audit the Fed legislation (H.R. 459) passed the House of Representatives, 327-98 during the 112th Congress.
Senator Paul’s bill has 22 co-sponsors and supporters hope this time around ‘will be different’ in terms of actually getting the legislation passed.
But as is often the case with this type of bill, the odds are certainly against them.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also expressed his support, telling the Washington Examiner,
“The Fed’s activities during the financial crisis were unprecedented, and I support an audit because taxpayers deserve to know what powerful government agencies, even the independent ones, are doing in their name.”
McConnell said he is working with Rand Paul to try to force the Senate to vote on the Audit the Fed Bill, citing Harry Reid’s ‘obstructionism’ in keeping the process from moving forward.
But what’s different this time around?
The so-called currency wars and the Fed’s enacting a fourth round of quantitative easing just raises more questions that the public does not have the answers to.
How much the electorate really cares about getting those answers will ultimately decide the fate of the bill this time around.
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