Liberty MavenUPDATED: Jim DeMint introduces a new watered down Fed audit bill
January 28th, 2010 2:50 pm | by Marc Gallagher | Published in Federal Reserve, Politics, congress | 7 Responses
IMPORTANT UPDATE: Jim DeMint’s office is making efforts to correct his bill. DeMint does support a full and complete audit. A spokesman for Senator DeMint has posted a comment on Donny Shaw’s article explaining there was a drafting error:
Thanks for giving me the chance to update your readers. The bill you refer to, which was intended to be identical to the Sanders-DeMint bill (S.604), was placed on the Senate calendar so Senator DeMint could press for an up or down vote to audit the Fed. Unfortunately, the bill contained a drafting error which we are quickly working to correct. The correct bill language should appear online within the next day or two and will mirror S.604, which Senator DeMint strongly supports and will fight to be debated and voted on in the Senate.
-Wesley Denton, spokesman for Senator DeMint
Original Article is below this line:
Jim DeMint co-authored a Wall Street Journal editorial with Ron Paul highlighting their desire for a full and complete Federal Reserve audit. Jim DeMint was the first Senator to cosponsor Ron Paul’s Fed Audit bill in the Senate, introduced by Bernie Sanders (S.604). Now, from the looks of it, DeMint may be capitulating on his original desire to “open the Fed up to a complete audit“.
On January 20th, DeMint introduced S.2939, a bill that looks like an audit on the surface, but is missing the important language that repeals the exceptions for auditing foreign central bank transactions, monetary policy decisions, and open market committee transactions. This appears to be another watered down bill that undermines the entire purpose of the audit.
Donny Shaw at OpenCongress.org explains it here.
This is troubling news for Fed watchers. I’ve passed along this information to the Campaign For Liberty. Let’s hope this development is one of those things that just seems bad but turns out good in the end. This is the first indication from DeMint that he may not be fully on-board with a complete audit.
January 28th, 2010 at 9:06 pm (#)
No Senator… not acceptable! Smacks of DoubleSpeak – Let Jim DeMint know he is at http://twitter.com/JimDemint
January 28th, 2010 at 9:06 pm (#)
No Senator… not acceptable! Smacks of DoubleSpeak – Let Jim DeMint know he is at http://twitter.com/JimDemint
January 28th, 2010 at 10:40 pm (#)
Marc- I posted a comment at OpenCongress.org to explain that this error is being quickly addressed (See my post here http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1492-De... I'll repost the statement below, thanks for covering this issue…
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Thanks for giving me the chance to update your readers. The bill you refer to, which was intended to be identical to the Sanders-DeMint bill (S.604), was placed on the Senate calendar so Senator DeMint could press for an up or down vote to audit the Fed. Unfortunately, the bill contained a drafting error which we are quickly working to correct. The correct bill language should appear online within the next day or two and will mirror S.604, which Senator DeMint strongly supports and will fight to be debated and voted on in the Senate.
Thanks for your attention to the critical importance of full transparency at the Federal Reserve.
-Wesley Denton, spokesman for Senator DeMint
http://demint.senate.gov
January 28th, 2010 at 10:40 pm (#)
Marc- I posted a comment at OpenCongress.org to explain that this error is being quickly addressed (See my post here http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1492-De... I'll repost the statement below, thanks for covering this issue…
————————————————————–
Thanks for giving me the chance to update your readers. The bill you refer to, which was intended to be identical to the Sanders-DeMint bill (S.604), was placed on the Senate calendar so Senator DeMint could press for an up or down vote to audit the Fed. Unfortunately, the bill contained a drafting error which we are quickly working to correct. The correct bill language should appear online within the next day or two and will mirror S.604, which Senator DeMint strongly supports and will fight to be debated and voted on in the Senate.
Thanks for your attention to the critical importance of full transparency at the Federal Reserve.
-Wesley Denton, spokesman for Senator DeMint
http://demint.senate.gov
January 28th, 2010 at 11:01 pm (#)
This story is incorrect. DeMint does not support watering down the Fed Audit bill. The bill DeMint filed was incorrect due to a drafting error. He's working to get it fixed now. It will be the same a S.604, the Sanders-DeMint bill. The reason DeMint is filing a duplicate bill is so it is on the Senate calendar so he can move to proceed to it and get a vote.
January 28th, 2010 at 11:01 pm (#)
This story is incorrect. DeMint does not support watering down the Fed Audit bill. The bill DeMint filed was incorrect due to a drafting error. He's working to get it fixed now. It will be the same a S.604, the Sanders-DeMint bill. The reason DeMint is filing a duplicate bill is so it is on the Senate calendar so he can move to proceed to it and get a vote.
January 29th, 2010 at 12:49 am (#)
Thanks Matt and thanks Marc for posting this. Rock on DeMint, Sanders and Paul!