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May 12, 2010 in Business
Senate OKs Federal Reserve audit
Details of who got what in bailout would be made public
WASHINGTON – The Senate voted 96-0 Tuesday to authorize a congressional audit of the secretive Federal Reserve Board’s emergency aid program and full disclosure of who got the money, a plan that could reveal more details about government help for embattled investment firm Goldman Sachs.
“We are on the verge of lifting the veil of secrecy on perhaps the most important government agency in the United States of America,” said independent Vermont Sen. Bernard Sanders, the proposal’s chief sponsor, “an agency which has control and spends trillions of dollars. They do it behind closed doors.”
Under his plan, Congress’ Government Accountability Office would conduct “a top-to-bottom audit of all the Federal Reserve’s emergency activities” since the economic crisis began in December 2007. The Fed also would have to post on its website all recipients of money from the more than $2 trillion in emergency aid that’s been disbursed since then.
The GAO also would look into whether the financial deals involved conflicts of interest.
The White House and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke had pushed hard to thwart the Fed audit, saying it would compromise the agency’s independence. But it became clear that Sanders had the votes, and they relented after he agreed to two changes.
Sanders’ concessions mean the audit would only be done once and that the list of funding recipients wouldn’t appear on the Web until Dec. 1, rather than 30 days after enactment.
The auditors also wouldn’t be allowed to probe how the Fed sets interest rates or monetary policy, its central power for managing the economy.
The audit is the latest Senate change to legislation that would overhaul the nation’s financial regulatory system.
The Senate debate is in its second week, with Democratic leaders hoping for a final vote later this week. If the measure passes, it would be reconciled with a similar bill that the House of Representatives passed last year. The merged measure then would require passage from both houses of Congress before it could be enacted into law, which is unlikely before June at the earliest.
Northwest wheat 
mikeln on May 12 at 1:18 p.m.
Good luck with this. The Federal reserve is a government enity, ran by the crooked banks. Do not think for one minute we will get any truth at all from this so called audit. We need to abolish the Federal Reserve and only allow banks to loan on money the American people save. It will be the only way we will see the wages of the average American go up. When we get paid enough to save, the banks will have money to loan. As it is now, the banks go to the back door of the fed and get cheap money to loan, no need to raise the wages of the American people. There will be no room for these crooks to give themselves millions and millions in pay they do not earn. These bankers know this and will fight any attempt to take this away from them. We the people need to fight back and tell these sleazeballs enough is enough and put the beast from jeckel island back in its cage and throw away the key.
concernedonlooker on May 24 at 2:47 p.m.
let’s keep this simple….We all realize that there is something very wrong with the ‘Federal Reserve’ but we are not really sure what that truely is in it’s entirety.
The Senate voted 96-0 Tuesday to authorize a congressional audit of the secretive Federal Reserve Board. Well now we are all onboard and know there is something wrong….great !
‘Sanders’ concessions mean the audit would only be done once’.
So ‘they’ will agree to let you audit them as long as you only do it ‘one time, and one time only’ and when you do you can only look through a small window……is that like the old saying ‘ Now you see it ! Now you don’t ? ’.
I would think it would be best to agree to something like this ‘only’ if they were perfect at what they do, and the decision on this particular part should be decided ‘after’ the complete audit has been performed.If they are good at manipulating money, then, you know they will be good at manipulating an audit, they were in control for a very long time and it is obvious that something does not add up, so, why should they have ‘any’ control over how the audit is performed ??
So what now ? Who else has to agree to this audit. ‘Congress’.
Is Congress busy with something more important than this, or do they not know about this audit request yet, and, do they need a while to mull it over, why don’t we chap on there door and ask them since the whole country ( or should I say world ) is waiting.
Maybe we should wait a while since it creates anxiety, and we ‘all know’ that anxiety is useful to a few people, but not to the whole country !!.
Reblix on July 11 at 4:51 p.m.
The “Federal Reserve” Is NOT a government entity; it is a private bank owned by a handful of very wealthy families.