Massie's Audit the Fed Bill Passes Oversight Committee
May 2016: Massie's Audit the Fed bill clears the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
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Transcript
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- thank you Mr chairman over the past Century the value of the dollar has declined by over 95% during those 100 years the Federal Reserve the organization established by
- Congress to manage congress's Article 1 Section 8 authority to coin money and regulate the value thereof has operated
- under a shroud of secrecy my bill hr24 and the amendment and in the nature of the substitute the Federal Reserve
- transparency act puts an end to that reign of secrecy this is not a controversial Bill Americans demand transparency and the House of
- Representatives has responded by passing this legislation twice in previous congresses by huge bipartisan majorities when its original author representative
- Ron Paul first carried the audit the FED Bill to the floor in the 112th Congress it passed by a comfortable veto proof majority 327 to 98 when representative
- Paul Brown brought this bill to the floor in the 113th Congress it passed by an even larger majority 333 to 92 in
- fact among members of this very committee who were here in those congresses all Republicans and over half the Democrats voted for this bill on the floor yet still some have asked and will
- ask why do we need this legislation isn't the Federal Reserve already audited the question deserves an answer it's true that the government
- accountability office performs a limited Financial off audit of parts of the Federal Reserve but this audit is perun due to the limits placed on the GAO by
- Congress the US code makes several critical exceptions to the fed's audit protocol of its most crucial activities number one GAO is prohibited from
- examining fed transactions or agreements with foreign governments and foreign Banks number two GAO is prohibited from examining all fed actions on monetary
- policy matters number three GAO is prohib Ed from auditing transactions made at the discretion of the Federal Open Market Committee and four GAO
- cannot examine any discussion or communication among or between anyone who works at the FED about any of the activities in the first three areas when
- these restrictions were originally added to the in the 1970s GAO testified GAO themselves testified that they quote
- could not see how they could satisfactorily audit the Federal Reserve System without the authority to examine the largest single category of financial
- transactions and assets that it has unquote so you see even though a cursory audit is done a programmatic audit needs
- to be completed in order for Congress to understand what the FED does and why the FED does it without a complete audit
- Congress can't provide oversight of an entity that it created let me say that again Congress created the Federal Reserve Congress and Congress alone has
- the Constitutional responsibility to coin money and regulate the value thereof we can Outsource the activity but we can't Outsource our
- responsibility this brings me to the other question I frequently hear which is won't a full audit compromise the fed's
- independence well that answer the answer is that without a full audit that includes the decision-making process how can we know that the FED is acting
- independently of for instance the Executive Branch the fed's charter is not to be a second Treasury Department how can we know that the FED is
- operating independently of big Bank CEOs in Wall Street given the revolving door of managers between the fed the treasury and Wall Street the opportunity for
- outside pressure and conflicts of interest abound at the FED only a full audit can demonstrate only a full audit
- that the FED makes decisions independently of the political whims of the president and independently of the profit goals of commercial Banks an
- organization entrusted with daily decisions that affect the value of Americans paychecks and the value of their retirement savings an organization
- whose mission has morphed into facilitating the bailout of foreign Banks this is an organization that requires a full audit and full oversight
- from the elected body that created it I thank the gentleman from Vermont Mr Welch for co-sponsor sponsoring this legislation three congresses in a row
- he's a colleague on this committee from the other side of the aisle and I want to thank chairman chaitz for his leadership on this issue throughout the years and for bringing this bill for
- consideration in committee today I urge my colleagues to support the bipartisan Federal Reserve transparency act and note that the amendment in the nature of
- a substitute makes only small conforming changes to the original bill I thank you and uh I yield back if the gentleman will yield I I um I really do appreciate
- your leadership on this you've been tenacious about it and sharing and talking about it with with other members we're I'm proud to bring it up today it does enjoy good bipartisan support uh as
- it has in previous cond congresses there really is no argument to knowingly keep yourselves in the dark um when you are
- arguing against transparency when you're arguing not to know something's probably fundamentally wrong with with your argument and so um I appreciate Mr
- Massie and what you've done for this and I hope we can Champion it not only through this committee but through the floor and then uh over to the Senate so uh again I thank you for your leadership
- and your your uh uh being the lead sponsor on this on this bill yield back and I assume the gentleman yields back well U just let me agree with the
- chairman that the argument that some people made make that if we actually knew what the Fed was doing the FED couldn't do it is an argument that we
- need to know what the FED is doing exactly and I and I yield back to the chairman thank you thank
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