House Oversight Committee Passes Audit the Fed

SPRINGFIELD, Virginia- In response to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s passing of Congressman Thomas Massie’s H.R. 24, “Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed,” Campaign for Liberty President Norm Singleton released the following statement:

“I applaud the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for voting for this important legislation. I’d also like to thank Representative Thomas Massie for his leadership on this issue,” said Mr. Singleton.

 “I urge Speaker Paul Ryan to swiftly bring Audit the Fed to the floor for a full vote so that the American people can finally know what the Federal Reserve is doing to our money and our economy. “Campaign for Liberty will continue to push to pass legislation in both the House and the Senate calling for a full audit of the Federal Reserve,” Mr. Singleton concluded. 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 114^th Congress on January 6, 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 112^th 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 113^th Congress.  The bill, which was cosponsored by 228 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 112^th and 113^th 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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