Liberty MavenA typical evasive reply from a Senator regarding auditing the Fed
September 30th, 2009 2:16 pm | by Mike Miller | Published in Activism, Big Government, Federal Reserve, Liberty, Politics, congress | 6 Responses
As most readers of Liberty Maven know, there’s been a push for quite some time now to get the Federal Reserve audited, a first small step in getting it abolished altogether (in my mind).
As many have done, I’ve contacted my Congressmen and Senators to let them know that I unequivocally support the Fed audit and that they should too.
Now that we have 296 Congressmen and 28 Senators co-sponsoring the bill(s), I received an email today from Senator Barbara Mikulski from Maryland. Her response, included below, is one huge noncommittal non-answer. What she’s basically doing is waiting until the last minute when she’s pressured to make a decision, and then she’ll stick a moistened finger up into the air to determine which way the political winds are blowing. Then she’ll join the side with the momentum and suddenly become vociferous that she’s been on that side all along. I just hope she ends up joining the fight to audit the Fed.
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Dear Mr. Miller:
Thank you for getting in touch with me about the Federal Reserve. It’s great to hear from you.
I appreciate hearing your views and I understand your concerns. Congress created the Fed in 1913 to serve as the central bank and set monetary policy for the United States. It has two equally critical goals: to promote full employment and contain inflation. Pursuing these goals requires the Federal Reserve be insulated against political pressures so that it can make decisions in the long term best interests of the economy. At the same time, the Fed must be accountable for its actions. This is especially true now after the Fed has taken such dramatic and unprecedented steps to head off the collapse of the financial system and the economy.
I supported amendments to the Congressional Budget Resolution (S. Con. Res. 13) and the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act (Public Law 111-22) that would have increased transparency at the Federal Reserve and required additional information about the Fed’s use of monetary policy in response to the credit crisis. But these amendments ultimately did not become law.
The Government Accountability Office currently audits the Fed, but it is prohibited from examining the agency’s monetary policy actions. The Federal Reserve Sunshine Act (S. 604) would provide additional authority to audit the entire Federal Reserve System by 2010 and report to Congress.
S. 604 is currently pending in the Senate Banking Committee. Knowing of your views is helpful to me, and I will keep them in mind should this legislation come before the full Senate.
Again, thanks for contacting me. Please let me know if I can be of assistance to you in the future.
Sincerely,
Barbara A. Mikulski
United States Senator
Please do not respond directly to this e-mail. The originating e-mail account is not monitored.
If you would like to get in touch with me again, please visit my Webform at http://mikulski.senate.gov/Contact/contact.cfm
September 30th, 2009 at 8:30 pm (#)
classic politician…one that should be one of the bums that gets thrown out in the next election.
September 30th, 2009 at 11:34 pm (#)
I got a similar reply from "my" senator Mark Pryor:
Dear Mr. Craig,
Thank you for contacting me regarding S. 604, the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009. I appreciate hearing from you.
As you may know, S. 604 was introduced by Senator Sanders on March 16, 2009, and was referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. The Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009 would require the Comptroller General to complete an audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and Federal Reserve banks and submit a report to Congress.
The current structure of the Federal Reserve has three major components established by the original act. First, a Board of Governors oversees the whole Federal Reserve and has responsibility for monetary policy. Second, there are 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks, which carry out supervision and examination of commercial banks that are Fed members. The member banks, all national banks and all state-chartered banks that choose to be members of the Federal Reserve System, make up the third component.
I believe that Congress must achieve a balance between assuring independence for the Federal Reserve's operations and making the bank accountable for its actions. Congress exercises oversight on the Federal Reserve in a variety of ways. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve is required to send a Monetary Policy Report to the Congress twice a year outlining its monetary policy. Usually, the Chairman of the Fed testifies to Congress on this report. The Federal Banking Agency Audit Act (P.L. 95-320) gives the Government Accountability Office (GAO) the authority to audit the Board of Governors, the Reserve Banks and branches. Such audits are limited since GAO is prohibited from auditing monetary policy operations, foreign transactions, and the Federal Open Markets Committee operations. Congressional oversight on these matters is exercised through the requirement for reports and through semi-annual monetary policy hearings.
Although I am not a member of the Senate Banking Committee, I will be sure to keep your thoughts in mind regarding oversight and transparency at the Federal Reserve, should this issue come before the Senate for consideration.
Again, thank you for contacting me. I value your input. Please do not hesitate to contact me or my office regarding this or any other matter of concern to you.
October 1st, 2009 at 8:10 am (#)
Here's the one from Senator Feinstein (CA):
Dear Miss xxxxx:
Thank you for contacting me to express support for legislation to increase transparency at the Federal Reserve. I appreciate your interest in monetary policy and welcome the opportunity to respond.
The Federal Reserve was originally established in response to the country's need for a sound and independent central bank to manage decisions relating to U.S. monetary policy. I understand your concern with some of the unprecedented steps that the Federal Reserve has taken recently to ease the flow of credit and stabilize financial markets.
On March 16, 2009, Senator Bernard Sanders (I-VT) introduced the "Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009" (S. 604), which would require the U.S. Comptroller General to audit the Federal Reserve System before the end of 2010. This bill has been referred to the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) has introduced a similar bill (H.R. 1207) in the House of Representatives. Please know that I will keep your support for this legislation in mind should it come before the full Senate.
While I recognize the importance of accountability in the operations of the Federal Reserve, I strongly believe that monetary decisions should be made independent of political influence or motives. You may be interested to learn that I supported an amendment to the Congressional Budget Resolution (S. Con. Res. 13) offered by Senator Sanders requiring the Federal Reserve to disclose how it has disbursed emergency economic assistance to financial institutions during this severe economic crisis. Be assured that I am carefully monitoring the actions taken by the Federal Reserve to help stimulate our economy and unfreeze credit for businesses and homeowners.
Once again, thank you for writing. I hope that you will continue to share your views with me. If I can be of any further assistance, please contact my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3841. Best regards.
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Everybody notice the similarities between all of these letters?
October 1st, 2009 at 10:14 am (#)
And the response from Senator Casey (PA)…
Thank you for taking the time to contact me with your thoughts regarding the Federal Reserve System, commonly known as the Federal Reserve. I appreciate hearing from all Pennsylvanians about the issues that matter most to them.
The recent financial crisis has led to a high level of involvement on the part of the Federal Reserve in our economy. Since late 2007, the Federal Reserve, along with central banks around the globe, has lowered interest rates and pushed an unprecedented amount of money into the financial markets. In doing so, the Federal Reserve has attempted to stimulate lending activity by banks and other financial institutions in an effort to grow the economy.
Apart from the current crisis, the Federal Reserve plays a pivotal role in managing the long term health of our economy by enacting policies to promote stable inflation, maximize employment and moderate long-term interest rates. In fact, the Federal Reserve's policy decisions affect issues ranging from housing to international trade.
Given the unprecedented steps taken by the Federal Reserve to combat the recession, I understand your concerns. Moreover, I have recently heard from many constituents about the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009, which would establish a one-time audit of the Federal Reserve by the Comptroller General, who would report the findings to Congress and present legislative recommendations as appropriate. To the extent that such an audit would increase transparency with respect to policies and decisions undertaken to stabilize the economy, I believe it could be beneficial. At the same time, however, I believe the autonomy of the Federal Reserve with respect to establishing and implementing monetary policy should not be compromised. Please be assured, as efforts to increase government transparency come before the Senate, I will weigh this balance carefully.
Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future about this or any other matter of importance to you.
If you have access to the Internet, I encourage you to visit my web site, http://casey.senate.gov. I invite you to use this online office as a comprehensive resource to stay up-to-date on my work in Washington, request assistance from my office or share with me your thoughts on the issues that matter most to you and to Pennsylvania.
Sincerely,
Bob Casey
United States Senator
October 1st, 2009 at 11:00 am (#)
Wow… so I guess there's a class they all take on how to write their responses!! Be assured, I'll have to keep that in mind when I'm running for Senator.
And again, thanks for your concern. If you have any questions, feel free to ask someone who's really considering answering you, instead of giving you the runaround.
October 2nd, 2009 at 10:27 pm (#)
I think the FED's lobbyist, Linda Robertson, writes these for them (isn't that nice of her). You may recognize her name, as she was the lobbyist for Enron. We all remember how well that worked out. So much for the FED being non-political, if that were the case why would they need a lobbyist in the first place?
So let's review. The FED is chartered with maintaining full employment and contain inflation. While they totally botched the first goal I'm sure that incurring 2 trillion dollars of additional debt (as a conservative estimate) won't create any new inflation.
The only thing that surprises me from the congressional replies is that they seem to know at least something about the FED. They must have needed to brush up after receiving enough calls and letters from their constituents. We shouldn't audit the FED, we should abolish it!