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HR 1207 Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009: Audit The Fed

Lamarr said:
The count is now at 237 Reps. We now have 2 co-sponsors in the Senate bill introduced by B. Sanders. Audit the Fed!

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-1207
Click to expand...

Bernie_Sanders.jpg
ralph%20nader.jpg

LIBERALS!
:groupwave​
 
Lamarr said:
Yes We Can!!! Those cats work for the people! The people want real "change". Recent additions include a lot of Dems: Thoughtone, thanx 4 callin' Hank Johnson and voicing your opinion regarding Transparency :D I got Dina Titus on speed dial!!! (702) 256-3462 The count is 207!

Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY)
Rep. Jo Bonner (R-AL)
Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA)
Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH)
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ)
Rep. Christopher Carney (D-PA)
Rep. Travis Childers (D-MS)*
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA)
Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-AZ)
Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA)
Rep. David Dreier (R-CA)
Rep. Steve King (R-IA)
Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)**
Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO)*
Rep. Chris Lee (R-NY)*
Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA)
Click to expand...

Hank is my rep. Replaced Cynthia McKinney.
 
The count is now 254: 4 new CA Reps :yes: 7 of the last 9 are Dems! What!

New Co-Sponsors:

Rep Chandler, Ben [D-KY]
Rep Courtney, Joe [D-CT]
Rep Farr, Sam [D-CA]
Rep Gallegly, Elton [R-CA]
Rep Harman, Jane [D-CA]
Rep Hirono, Mazie K. [D-HI]
Rep Lofgren, Zoe [D-CA]
Rep Murphy, Christopher S. [D-CT]
Rep Sullivan, John [R-OK]

The Reps who are STILL NOT LISTENING to their Constituents and the American people as a whole:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/17231088/HR-1207-House-Members-Who-Have-Not-Signed-as-Cosponsors-as-of-7809

IF THESE PEOPLE REFUSE TO SUPPORT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, THEN THEY SHOULD NOT BE SUPPORTED BY THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AT THE NEXT ELECTION. ANYONE WHO DOES NOT SUPPORT TRANSPARENCY, DOESN'T BELONG IN OUR GOVERNMENT, OR ANY TOP POSITION, PERIOD! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE, AND IT'S TIME THEY WERE TOLD SO!
 
There are 273 co-sponsors in the House & 13 co-sponsors for the Senate version. FYI, all Repubs in the House have co-sponsored with over 90 Dems going along. Contact you Rep today, We want Transparency!


Senate version
New Co-Sponsors to S. 604:

Sen Robert F. Bennett [R-UT]
Sen John Barrasso [R-WY]
Sen Russell D. Feingold [D-WI]
Sen Blanche L. Lincoln [D-AR]
Sen John McCain [R-AZ]
 
Why is it that HR 2454, the Carbon tax bill, only had 1 cosponsor and it got rushed through the House. There were very brief hearings and then it only passed by 7 votes (hardly a mandate);

However, HR 1207 has 270 co-sponsors and growing and it's stalled in the House Financial Services Committee (headed by Frank, a guy not for it and who works for the bankers, as shown by his actions).

THIS IS AN AGENDA! Only things, those behind the Agenda want, are moving through quickly, and nothing the people want gets the time of day! They work for the American people, and it's time they act like itand brin HR 1207 to the floor for a vote!
:angry:
 
Last edited:
streaming link to the House markup hearing of Sept. 25, 2009: http://financialserv.edgeboss.net/wmedia/financialserv/hearing092509.wvx

I didn't find one for the Senate yet...I guess they haven't gotten to it.

Anywho...as I support and am optimistic about this legislation. Co-sponsors don't mean shit.:smh: Most bills don't have more than 4 or 5 and get passed through. It's appalling that legislation that is so obviously supported by the people is taking forever to get through.
 
Re: End The Fed! - Why the Federal Reserve Must Be Abolished!

<font size="5"><Center>
Senate Nod to Fed Audit Is Expected</font size></center>


07regulate_CA0-articleInline.jpg

<font size="1">The audit proposed by Senator
Bernard Sanders of Vermont has
won bipartisan support. </font size>


By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Published: May 6, 2010


WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday rejected an effort by liberal Democrats to break up some of the biggest banks, defeating an amendment to financial regulatory legislation that would have imposed new limits on the size and scope of financial companies.

The amendment, proposed by Senators Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, and Ted Kaufman, Democrat of Delaware, would have forced some of the heaviest hitters on Wall Street, including Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, to shrink in size to limit the risk that big banks pose to the broader financial system.


<font size="3"><center>* * * </font size></center>

Separately on Thursday, the Senate moved closer to approving a proposal to require a one-time audit of the Federal Reserve’s response to the financial crisis and to force the central bank to disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion in aid, including the bailouts of big banks.

The proposal, by Senator Bernard Sanders, independent of Vermont, gained momentum even as Republicans and Democrats delayed a vote on it until next week.

Despite the delay, the amendment by Mr. Sanders requiring the audit appeared to have enough support among senators in both parties to win adoption easily.

The White House and the Fed had opposed the original proposal by Mr. Sanders, which would have allowed additional audits of the Fed. A modified proposal from Mr. Sanders appeared to address those concerns, but it would still force the Fed to disclose information that it had maintained was confidential.

The proposal would require the federal Government Accountability Office to conduct a “one-time audit of all loans and other financial assistance provided during the period beginning on Dec. 1, 2007 and ending on the date of enactment of this Act” under a number of programs the Fed used to respond to the near collapse of the financial system.

The amendment states that the audit “not interfere with monetary policy,” addressing a concern raised by the Obama administration and the Fed.

Officials said the proposal would expand on changes made to the Fed in 1978, which subjected much of its operations to regular auditing by the accountability office but explicitly excluded monetary policy.

The audit sought by Mr. Sanders would scrutinize an alphabet soup of programs that injected liquidity into the markets, ranging from commercial paper to money market funds. Under the proposal, the accountability office will not question whether the loans should have been made but will focus on operational integrity and accounting practices.

The audit, however, would explore “whether the credit facility inappropriately favors one or more specific participants over other institutions eligible to utilize the facility” and “whether there were conflicts of interest with respect to the manner in which such facility was established or operated.”

The apparent compromise with the administration and the Fed would give Mr. Sanders and other critics of the central bank an opportunity to claim victory, while not breaking with the Fed’s insistence that its monetary decisions be sacrosanct and insulated from political influence.

Sewell Chan contributed reporting from Washington.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/business/economy/07regulate.html?src=busln
 
Source

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said Thursday that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) "sold out" on a measure to audit the Federal Reserve.

Sanders agreed to modify the measure in a way that requires audits of the Fed during the financial crisis but not of the bank's monetary policy.

On his Facebook page, Paul lashed out at Sanders. Paul is a longtime critic of the Fed, and pushed audit legislation in the House that drew more than 300 cosponsors.

"Bernie Sanders has sold out and sided with [Sen.] Chris Dodd to gut Audit the Fed in the Senate. His 'compromise' is what the administration and banking interests want," Paul wrote on Facebook.

Paul said transparency of the Fed's interest rate decisions are important.

The Federal Reserve and Obama administration had strongly opposed earlier drafts of the Senate amendment.

The central bank said the earlier version would have threatened the independence of monetary policy in the United States.

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Myth #6: The Federal Reserve Has Never Been Audited.

source: Political Research Associates

An often repeated Federal Reserve conspiracy theory is that the Fed has never been audited. "Every year Congress introduces legislation to audit the FED," wrote Thomas Schauf, "and every year it is defeated."<SUP>7</SUP> Why? Conspiracy theorists such as Schauf, Gary Kah (1991), and Pat Robertson (1994) say the reason is that the Fed is involved in an international plot to subvert U.S. sovereignty and create a one-world government. Naturally, the Fed will not permit Congress to audit its activities, lest it discover this treasonous plan and shut it down.
How much truth is there to this claim? Has the Fed ever been audited by Congress or anyone else? The Fed controls U.S. monetary policy and can act with a great deal of independence from Congress and the executive branch. Clearly, such awesome power requires some sort of regular public oversight at the very least to insure that the Fed is doing its job efficiently and effectively, and to detect any abuses of power or fraud. This essay explores the claim that the Fed has never been audited and finds that it is completely false. A Brief History of Federal Reserve Audits


Since its inception in 1913 the Federal Reserve System has been subjected to a variety of financial and performance audits by Congress, the executive branch, and private accounting firms, although responsibility for this task has shifted from time to time. From 1913 to 1921 the Board of Governors, then known as the Federal Reserve Board which sets monetary policy and regulates the activities of the Federal Reserve Banks, was audited annually by the U.S. Treasury Department. In 1921 Congress created the Government Accounting Office (GAO) and assigned it to audit the Board until 1933. In the Banking Act of 1933, Congress voted specifically to remove the Board from the GAO's jurisdiction. From 1933 to 1952 audit teams from the twelve Federal Reserve Banks performed the annual examination of the BOG's books. From 1952 to 1978, the Board, under authorization from Congress, decided to employ nationally recognize accounting firms to conduct the audits of itself to insure independent oversight. This provided an external evaluation of the adequacy and effectiveness of the examination procedures.<SUP>1</SUP>
In 1978 Congress passed the Federal Banking Agency Audit Act (31 USCA §714). It placed the Federal Reserve System back under the auditing authority of the GAO. The Act significantly increased the access of the GAO to the Federal Reserve Banks, the Board, and the Federal Open Market Committee (the FOMC). Since then, the GAO has conducted over 100 financial audits and performance audits of the three Federal Reserve bodies.<SUP>3</SUP> Scope of GAO Audits


Some of the more important GAO performance audits of the Fed have been in the areas of bank supervision, payment systems activities, and government securities activities. In the first area, the GAO examined how well the Fed was enforcing its regulatory powers over its member banks. In 1992 it drew attention to the Fed's sluggish compliance with regulatory reforms mandated by the Foreign Bank Supervision Act of 1991. In examining the Fed's payment system activities, the GAO made the Fed aware of how its pricing policies for such services as check-clearing affected private suppliers of check-clearing services, and also suggested ways to speed up the process of check collections. Security markets for government debt is a crucial market, and GAO performance audits of the Fed have lead to more openness in the primary dealer system, particularly concerning the disclosure of price information. The GAO is also involved in several ongoing performance audits of the Fed such as analysis of risks and benefits of interstate banking, regulation of derivatives, and the budget of the Federal Reserve system.<SUP>2</SUP> Audits By Private Accounting Firms


Financial audits of the Fed are also conducted regularly. Each Reserve Bank is audited every year by independent General Auditors who report directly to the Board of Governors. These examinations involve financial statement audits and reviews on the effectiveness of financial controls. Each Reserve Bank also has its own internal audit mechanisms. The Board contracts each year with an outside accounting firm to evaluate the audit program's effectiveness. Price Waterhouse conducted an audit of the Board's 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998 financial statements and filed this report in the Board's 1996 Annual Report (nearly identical ones appear in other Annual Reports):
We have audited the accompanying balance sheets of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Board) as of December 31, 1995 and 1994, and the related statements of revenues and expenses for the years then ended. These financial statements are the responsibility of the Board's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with generally accepted accounting standards and Government Accounting Standards issued by the Comptroller General of the United States. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estmates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
In our opinion the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Board as of December 31, 1995 and 1994, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the years then ended in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles. As discussed in Notes 1 and 3 to the financial statements, the Board implemented Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 112, Employers' Accounting for Postemployment Benefits, effective January 1, 1994. In accordance with Government Accounting Standards, we have also issued a report dated March 25, 1996 on our consideration of the Board's internal control structure and a report dated March 25, 1996 on its compliance with laws and regulations.<SUP>4</SUP>
​
The Board has also contracted with Coopers & Lybrand to conduct annual financial audits of the Board and the individual Federal Reserve Banks.​
Exemptions to the Scope of GAO Audits The Government Accounting Office does not have complete access to all aspects of the Federal Reserve System. The law excludes the following areas from GAO inspections (31 USCA §714):
​
(1) transactions for or with a foreign central bank, government of a foreign country, or nonprivate international financing organization;

(2) deliberations, decisions, or actions on monetary policy matters, including discount window operations, reserves of member banks, securities credit, interest on deposits, open market operations;
(3) transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee; or
(4) a part of a discussion or communication among or between members of the Board of Governors and officers and employees of the Federal Reserve System related to items.
In 1993 Wayne D. Angell, then a member of the Board of Governors, submitted testimony before a House subcommittee on the reasons for the restrictions on GAO access. He commented,
By excluding these areas, the Act attempts to balance the need for public accountability of the Federal Reserve through GAO audits against the need to insulate the central bank's monetary policy functions from short-term political pressures and to ensure that foreign central banks and governmental entities can transact business in the U.S. financial markets through the Federal Reserve on a confidential basis.<SUP>2</SUP>​
In reference to a bill that would lift the constraints placed on the GAO's audit authority over the Federal Reserve, Angell stated,
The benefits, if any, of broadening the GAO's authority into the areas of monetary policy and transactions with foreign official entities would be small. With regard to purely financial audits, the Federal Reserve Act already requires that the Board conduct an annual financial examination of each Reserve Bank...The process of conducting financial audits is reviewed by a public accounting firm to confirm that the methods and techniques being employed are effective and that the program follows generally accepted auditing standards...Further, a private accounting firm audits the Board's balance sheet...Finally, and more broadly, the Congress has, in effect, mandated its own review of monetary policy by requiring semiannual reports to Congress on monetary policy under the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978...In addition, there is a vast and continuously updated body of literature and expert evaluation of U.S. monetary policy. In this environment, the contribution that a GAO audit would make to the active public discussion of the conduct of monetary policy is not likely to outweigh the disadvantages of expanding GAO audit authority in this area.<SUP>2</SUP>​
For more on GAO restrictions, you can search the Government Printing Office website for GAO report T-GGD-94-44, entitled "Federal Reserve System Audits: Restrictions on GAO's Access."​
The Budget of the Federal Reserve and Other Oversight

The budget of the Federal Reserve system is determined by each Bank and the Board of Governors. Stephen L. Neal, the Chair of the House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy in 1991, stated that "Congress plays no direct role in setting or authorizing the Fed's budget. Control of its own budget is an essential component of the independence the Fed must enjoy."<SUP>1</SUP> Additional oversight of the Federal Reserve System derives from the ability of Congress to expand or to contract the Fed's powers. On numerous occasions Congress has seen fit to change the Fed's structure, alter its mission, and grant it new or different powers. In 1935 Congress changed the composition of the Board of Governors to give it more independence, and it allowed the Board to determine the discount rate for all Federal Reserve Banks rather than allow each Bank to set its own rate. In1978 Congress mandated the Fed's new goal to be full employment and price stability. In 1980 Congress granted the Fed new regulatory powers over non-member banks.
Many other government reports on the audits of the Federal Reserve system are available on-line through the Government Printing Office website. Three interesting GAO reports on Federal Reserve finances and performance are:
Federal Reserve Banks: Innaccurate Reporting of Currency at the Los Angeles Branch, (9/30/96, GAO report AMID-96-146).
Federal Reserve Banks: Internal Control, Accounting, and Auditing Issues, (2/9/96, GAO report AMID-96-5). Federal Reserve System: Current and Future Challenges Require Systemwide Attention, (6/17/96, GGD-96-128).
​
Conclusion


It is obvious that the Federal Reserve System is and has always been audited. It is difficult to imagine how Kah, Schauf, and other conspiracy theorists could not have come across this evidence in the course of their research. Perhaps they are merely poor researchers. Or maybe they are reluctant to acknowledge facts which contradict their basic thesis. Either way, their credibility among skeptical readers takes a sharp hit by making such obvious factual errors.
For more on how the Federal Reserve system is audited, see the New York Federal Reserve's FedPoints. <CENTER>References

</CENTER>
1. "The Budget of the Federal Reserve System," Hearing before the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy...[House], July 18, 1991, U.S. Government Printing Office, Serial no. 102-59.
2. H.R. 28: "Federal Reserve Accountability Act of 1993," Hearing before the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy...[House], October 27, 1993, U.S. Government Printing Office, Serial no. 103-86.
3. Public Law 95-320, "Federal Banking Agency Audit Act," July 21, 1978.
4. Annual Report, 1996, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
5. Kah, Gary (1991), En Route to Global Occupation. Layfayette, La.: Huntington House.
6. Robertson, Pat (1994). The Turning Tide. Dallas: Word Publishing.
7. Schauf, Thomas (1992). The Federal Reserve. Streamwood, IL: FED-UP, Inc. 8. United States Code Annotated, U.S. Government Printing Office.
​
 
Re: Myth #6: The Federal Reserve Has Never Been Audited.

Bullshit!

1) Can we get an accounting of the gold in Fort Knox? SHOW US THE GOLD

2) What is the Fed's role with the IMF?

3) Did Bernanke use American dollars to bail out Greece?

We'll start there!
 
Re: Myth #6: The Federal Reserve Has Never Been Audited.

source: Political Research Associates

Myth #8: If it were not for the Federal Reserve charging the government interest, the budget would be balanced and we would have no national debt.

A popular misconception about the Federal Reserve is that it has something to do with the national debt. The argument is that because the government must pay interest on the money it has borrowed over the years, today's budget deficit is higher than what it would otherwise be. If only the Fed wouldn't charge interest on the debt, the government would not have a deficit.​

Several things make this argument wrong. First, the Federal Reserve holds very little of the national debt. Of the $5.7 trillion in government bonds currently outstanding, the Fed holds only about 8.7%. <SUP>2</SUP> This means that the bulk of the interest payments go not to the Federal Reserve, but to the other bondholders.​

Second, nearly all the interest paid to the Federal Reserve is rebated to the Treasury. This means that the bonds held by the Fed carry no net interest obligation for the Treasury. For example, in 1999 the Fed collected $28.2 billion in interest on its portfolio of government bonds, but it rebated $25.4 billion to the Treasury.<SUP>1</SUP>​

Third, to say that the budget deficit would be smaller but for the interest payments is an exersize in absurd logic. One could just as easily say that the deficit is caused by defense spending, Medicare, or any other combination of programs with spending that sums to the amount of the budget deficit. One could also blame Congress for not raising enough taxes to cover their spending plans or for spending too much in the first place. Finally, placing blame for the national debt at the door of the Federal Reserve demonstrates an ignorance of how our government works. The national debt has but one cause: Congress. The debt is the sum of all the budget deficits and budget surpluses the federal government has ever had. It is Congress, not the Federal Reserve, that determines federal spending and tax rates. Therefore, it is Congress, not the Federal Reserve, who is responsible for it.​

<CENTER>References:


</CENTER>
 
Re: Myth #6: The Federal Reserve Has Never Been Audited.

Well, you haven't gotten your audit yet but, get your press passes ready . . .


Bernanke will meet the press, a first for the Fed



McClatchy Newspapers
By Kevin G. Hall |

WASHINGTON — In a historic break with an almost century-old tradition, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will hold a news conference Wednesday.

If it were most any other Washington power figure, scheduling a news conference wouldn't be big news. But in speaking to the media after a two-day closed-door meeting of the Fed's main policy-making group, Bernanke will be ushering in a new era of transparency for the central bank, which has cloaked its deliberations in secrecy since its founding in 1913.

He'll also risk sending financial markets into unintended turmoil if the news media misinterpret his remarks; Fed chairmen traditionally take great care in their public utterances to avoid such risks, but news conferences are by nature dynamic exchanges in which technical nuance can easily be lost.

FULL STORY



 
Lamarr said:
Bullshit!

1) Can we get an accounting of the gold in Fort Knox? SHOW US THE GOLD

We'll start there!
Click to expand...

paul.jpg


1952 The Daughters of the American Revolution call for an investigation into the alleged disappearance of Ft. Knox's gold. President Truman invites them to inspect the stockpile themselves; they decline. (See "<!---->[URL="http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/07/missing-fort-knox-gold"]All the Gold in Ft. Knox<!--[/URL]-->.")

1953 The Treasury audits the federal gold stockpile, reporting, "Everything is there."

1974 Tabloids claim LBJ sold off the US gold supply to the British. Ft. Knox opens its vaults to the General Accounting Office and the media—gold still there.
 
thoughtone said:
paul.jpg


1952 The Daughters of the American Revolution call for an investigation into the alleged disappearance of Ft. Knox's gold. President Truman invites them to inspect the stockpile themselves; they decline. (See "<!---->[URL="http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/07/missing-fort-knox-gold"]All the Gold in Ft. Knox<!--[/URL]-->.")

1953 The Treasury audits the federal gold stockpile, reporting, "Everything is there."

1974 Tabloids claim LBJ sold off the US gold supply to the British. Ft. Knox opens its vaults to the General Accounting Office and the media—gold still there.
Click to expand...

There are a lot of fools in DC... slimy, sleazy, scumbags who ain't worth s**t!

While I may not agree with Ron Paul about a lot, he is no dummy! That MFer knows his stuff.

He may be white, but he is one of the few I actually respect.
 
<IFRAME SRC="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/ron-pauls-audit-fed-bill-passes-house/story?id=16855319" WIDTH=760 HEIGHT=1500>
<A HREF="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/ron-pauls-audit-fed-bill-passes-house/story?id=16855319">link</A>

</IFRAME>
 

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