Dear Friends,
As we reflect on President Obama's first 100 days in office, the hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts of Wall Street and the just passed budget, a staggering $3.4 trillion boondoggle, I wanted to share some good news with you.
As I write, H.R. 1207, my bill to audit the Federal Reserve, currently has 110 cosponsors in the House of Representatives. This piece of legislation is perhaps the most important of my career, and I thank you for your continued support in sending me back to Congress to fight for it.
A broad coalition of Representatives has joined with me in supporting your right to transparency at the Fed. For example, Rep. Tom Price (GA), head of the conservative Republican Study Committee, and Rep. Lynn Woolsey (CA), former head of the liberal Progressive Caucus, have both cosponsored the bill. Americans from all over the political spectrum are demanding an audit of the Federal Reserve. And with good reason!
Since its inception, the Federal Reserve has operated without sufficient transparency or accountability to the American people. In fact, current law specifically excludes the Fed from audit or real congressional oversight. No government agency has such an utter lack of sunshine.
The Federal Reserve has created and dispersed trillions of dollars in response to our current financial crisis. Of course, I am among the most outspoken critics of the bailouts, but Americans across the nation, regardless of their opinion of the TARP program, want to know where that money has gone and exactly how much has been spent.
H.R. 1207 will open up the Fed's funding facilities, such as the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, Term Securities Lending Facility, and Term Asset-Backed Securities Lending Facility to Congressional oversight.
Additionally, audits could include discount window operations, open market operations, and agreements with foreign central banks, such as the ongoing dollar swap operations with European central banks.
By opening all Fed operations to a GAO audit and calling for such an audit to be completed by the end of 2010, the H.R. 1207 would achieve much-needed transparency of the Federal Reserve.
Times are tough, and we continue to hear a stream of bad news. But I will continue to stand up for you in Congress and fight for our American traditions, to protect our Liberty and for an Audit of the Federal Reserve.
Thank you again for your support. I could not continue my fight without you.
In Liberty,
Ron Paul
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Comments: 15
~M
Some of us knew in 2001 we were headed for this disster.
Certainly Ole Ron could have passed it before the 2006 Congressional elections.
If he did not know we were headed for a disaster?
can he add total debt? out of control even in 2001 for individuals, business, our government.
subract jobs/income for working class americans, now cutely called middle class.
divide avg. cost of homes vs mean earnings?
multiply, the cost of Afghan/Iraq wars?
I am not impressed
That's our nation for ya... let someone else take care of it. Let someone else worry about it. See where that's gotten us, over all these years the Fed has been allowed to control our money?
Sad state of affairs, for certain. But, I have a feeling that those guilty of getting our country into this financial mess, will "bail out the reserve" by ignoring or amending the bill so much that it'd be worthless upon passage.
I've lost my faith in all politicians, long ago. Money is truly the root of all evil.
I tend to agree that people just do not comprehend the roll of the FED in their lives. All of this money they are printing out of thin air does nothing but make our dollars less valuable and therefore those on a fixed income pay with less spending power. When bread went from 79cents a loaf a year or two ago up to 99 cents a loaf it was the same as taking another 20 cents away from everyone's income.
I have to wonder why the Fed could get away without accounting for their handling of our monitary system all of these years. I hope that this time Ron Paul is succcessful in his effort to make them accountable.
(a) In this section, "agency" means the Financial Institutions Examination Council, the Federal Reserve Board, Federal reserve banks, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Office of Thrift Supervision. (b) Under regulations of the Comptroller General, the Comptroller General shall audit an agency, [but may carry out an onsite examination of an open insured bank or bank holding company only if the appropriate agency has consented in writing.]
Audits of the Federal Reserve Board and Federal reserve banks may not include - (1) transactions for or with a foreign central bank, government of a foreign country, or nonprivate international financing organization; (2) 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; (3) transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee; or (4) a part of a discussion or communication among or between members of the Board of Governors and officers and employees of the Federal Reserve System related to clauses (1)-(3) of this subsection. (c)(1) Except as provided in this subsection, an officer or employee of the General Accounting Office may not disclose information identifying an open bank, an open bank holding company, or a customer of an open or closed bank or bank holding company.
The Comptroller General may disclose information related to the affairs of a closed bank or closed bank holding company identifying a customer of the closed bank or closed bank holding company only if the Comptroller General believes the customer had a controlling influence in the management of the closed bank or closed bank holding company or was related to or affiliated with a person or group having a controlling influence. (2) An officer or employee of the Office may discuss a customer, bank, or bank holding company with an official of an agency and may report an apparent criminal violation to an appropriate law enforcement authority of the United States Government or a State. (3) This subsection does not authorize an officer or employee of an agency to withhold information from a committee of Congress authorized to have the information. (d)(1) To carry out this section, all records and property of or used by an agency, including samples of reports of examinations of a bank or bank holding company the Comptroller General considers statistically meaningful and workpapers and correspondence related to the reports shall be made available to the Comptroller General.
(e) Audit and Report of the Federal Reserve System-
(1) IN GENERAL- The audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks under subsection (b) shall be completed before the end of 2010.
(2) REPORT
(A) REQUIRED- A report on the audit referred to in paragraph (1) shall be submitted by the Comptroller General to the Congress before the end of the 90-day period beginning on the date on which such audit is completed and made available to the Speaker of the House, the majority and minority leaders of the House of Representatives, the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the committee and each subcommittee of jurisdiction in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and any other Member of Congress who requests it.
(B) CONTENTS- The report under subparagraph (A) shall include a detailed description of the findings and conclusion of the Comptroller General with respect to the audit that is the subject of the report, together with such recommendations for legislative or administrative action as the Comptroller General may determine to be appropriate.
The Comptroller General shall give an agency a current list of officers and employees to whom, with proper identification, records and property may be made available, and who may make notes or copies necessary to carry out an audit. (2) The Comptroller General shall prevent unauthorized access to records or property of or used by an agency that the Comptroller General obtains during an audit.
So, HR-1207 takes out the the words "but may carry out an onsite examination of an open insured bank or bank holding company only if the appropriate agency has consented in writing." from the first paragraph but doen't say why. Then it adds the new subsection (e) after the second paragraph. But it doesn't adress what the code says Audits of the Federal Reserve Board and Federal reserve banks may not include.
And what might that be you ask? Well...
(1) transactions for or with a foreign central bank, government of a foreign country, or nonprivate international financing organization; (2) 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; (3) transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee; or (4) a part of a discussion or communication among or between members of the Board of Governors and officers and employees of the Federal Reserve System related to clauses (1)-(3) of this subsection. (c)(1) Except as provided in this subsection, an officer or employee of the General Accounting Office may not disclose information identifying an open bank, an open bank holding company, or a customer of an open or closed bank or bank holding company.
My comment is...If we still can;t include all these things in an audit, then what's the point?
As usual, Ron Paul is really good at inciting the ignorant, but very weak on substance. A good idea?... Maybe, but it doesn't go nearly far enough. The section forbidding the aforementioned items from being audited need to be addressed or all this will be for nothing.
We can only hope that the facts around the off shore Bankster control of America will get out into the public domain somehow.
Keep in mind, that the last time America had political leaders in office telling us that they would abolish the Federal Reserve & dismantle the CIA, Kennedy was President & look what happened to him !
That code applies to :"(a) In this section, "agency" means the Financial Institutions Examination Council, the Federal Reserve Board, Federal reserve banks, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Office of Thrift Supervision. (b) Under regulations of the Comptroller General, the Comptroller General shall audit an agency,"
The Fed is none of those and is not under the control of any government agency.
Or is Paul just beating his chest for nothing?
Why an organization with the kind of power the Fed has is never audited to make sure they are doing the job they are supposed to be doing a lot is wrong.
If the audit is honest they would find a nest of vipers.
The real question should be, How much is an out of control Fed costing us without an audit.