House Oversight to Markup Audit the Fed
SPRINGFIELD, Virginia– In response to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s announcement that they will markup H.R. 24, “Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed,” on Tuesday, May 17, Campaign for Liberty Chairman Ron Paul released the following statement:
“OGR’s announcement that they will markup Audit the Fed next week is a good step toward finally tearing down the Fed’s wall of secrecy,” said Dr. Ron Paul.
“The House of Representatives should vote on the bill this summer and send it back to the Senate for another vote before the election, and then hopefully on to President Obama’s desk so people can finally learn the truth about monetary policy.”
Campaign for Liberty will continue to push to pass legislation calling for a full audit of the Federal Reserve.
About Audit the Fed
Currently the GAO is prohibited by law from auditing four areas of the Federal Reserve:
- transactions for or with a foreign central bank, government of a foreign country, or nonprivate international financing organization;
- deliberations, decisions, or actions on monetary policy matters, including discount window operations, reserves of member banks, securities credit, interest on deposits, and open market operations;
- transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee; or
- a part of a discussion or communication among or between members of the Board and officers and employees of the Federal Reserve System related to clauses (1)–(3) of this subsection.
Audit the Fed removes these four exemptions and is supported by nearly 75 percent of the American people.
Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) introduced “Audit the Fed” in the 114th Congress on January 6th, 2015. The bill currently has 197 bipartisan cosponsors.
Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed bill, H.R. 459, gained 274 cosponsors and passed the House of Representatives in the 112th Congress on July 25, 2012, by an overwhelming three-fourths majority of 327-98 after a nationwide grassroots mobilization effort led by Campaign for Liberty. The legislation called for a “full audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Reserve banks by the Comptroller General of the United States.”
Congressman Paul Broun (R-GA) reintroduced Dr. Paul’s Audit the Fed bill in January 2013 as H.R 24, “The Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2013,” in the 113th Congress. The bill, which was cosponsored by 224 Representatives, passed the House of Representatives on September 17, 2014, by a vote of 333-92.
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced companion legislation in both the 112th and 113th Congresses, which gained 37 and 32 cosponsors, respectively. Then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid refused to allow Audit the Fed to be brought to the floor in either Congress for a vote despite repeatedly calling for an audit of the Federal Reserve throughout his career.
On January 12, 2016, a majority of the Senate (53-44) voted in favor of Senator Rand Paul’s S. 2232, the Senate companion to H.R. 24, though cloture on the motion to proceed to the measure was not invoked.
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