WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 - With the House Financial Services Committee Friday hearing on H.R. 1207, the Federal Transparency Act, supporters see an opportunity to move this widely supported legislation forward.
“This hearing gets us one step closer to the goal of greater disclosure and transparency in how the Federal Reserve works. The Fed gets to choose the winners and losers, and with that power should come the greatest level of accountability,” said Nicole Tichon Tax and Budget Reform Advocate of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
Consumer watchdog group U.S. PIRG is a member of a diverse coalition of taxpayer, citizen and government watchdog groups which sent letters to House and Senate members in support of H.R. 1207 and its companion, S. 604.
The bills call for a full audit of Federal Reserve by the Government Accountability Office in 2010, followed by a report to Congress.
To date, 290 members of the House of Representatives support H.R. 1207, including progressive, conservative and moderate lawmakers.
In addition, recent research shows that 75 percent of Americans support auditing the Fed, and a recent ruling from the U.S. District Court in New York indicates that at least one judge agrees more transparency is needed.
The Audit the Fed coalition has gained momentum in their fight for legislation to increase transparency within the Fed. Earlier in September, coalition leaders and grassroots volunteers delivered over 100,000 petitions to Capitol Hill to demonstrate the broad and far-reaching support for the bills.
John Tate, President of Campaign for Liberty, which spearheads the coalition, noted that trillions of Federal Reserve money has gone to the recent bailouts, “and we cannot even find out where this money goes, or how it is spent.”
“That's why these hearings are being held and why a full-scale Audit of the Fed is way overdue,” Tate added.
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U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization.
For more information on U.S. PIRG’s campaigns to improve Financial Security, click here.
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