You are here
Broad, bipartisan coalition fighting Fed in Senate
By Ryan Grim
The Huffington Post, New York
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/27/broad-bipartisan-coalitio_n_553...
As unusual a coalition as can be crafted in the Senate plans to fight for an amendment to the Wall Street reform bill that would open the Federal Reserve to a serious audit by the Government Accountability Office. Sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, the language is modeled after an amendment that passed the House, sponsored by Reps. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., and Ron Paul, R-Texas.
Sanders is joined by four Republicans of varying politics: John McCain of Arizona, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, David Vitter of Louisiana, and Sam Brownback of Kansas. If Democrats in the Senate back the measure, it would have at least 63 votes, but Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Connecticut, is opposed and has argued against a broad audit.
The chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vermont, is also a cosponsor, as is Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin. he group is actively gathering cosponsors as the Senate continues to vote to break a Republican filibuster that is preventing debate from beginning.
... Dispatch continues below ...
Coming Friday-Sunday, June 11-13, at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Marriot:
The Anglo Far-East Bullion Co.'s Gold and Silver Conference
The conference will explore the dangers and opportunities in today's bullion markets and the need for investors to diversify bullion holdings outside of bullion banking and commodities markets. Speakers will include David Morgan of Silver-Investor.com, Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Chairman Bill Murphy, and Duncan Cameron and Philip Judge of Anglo Far-East Bullion Co. The earliest conference attendees on Saturday will be able to schedule one-on-one interviews for personal consultation with Anglo-Far East's experts on Sunday.
Watch future GATA Dispatches for registration information.
To learn more about the Anglo Far-East Bullion Co., please visit http://www.anglofareast.com/
"For nearly nine decades, the GAO has a proven track record of conducting objective, fact-based, nonpartisan, non-ideological, fair, and balanced audits. Through these audits, the GAO helped save the American taxpayers $50 billion last year alone by rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government," reads a letter circulated by Sanders. "Let's not equate independence with secrecy. We cannot let the Fed operate in secrecy any longer. There is simply too much money at stake."
The letter reads as follows:
"The American people have a right to know who received over $2 trillion in financial assistance from the Federal Reserve.
"Since the beginning of the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve has provided over $2 trillion in taxpayer-backed loans and other financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the world. Unfortunately, the Fed is still refusing to tell the American people or the Congress who received most of this assistance, how much they received or what they are doing with this money. This money does not belong to the Federal Reserve; it belongs to the American people, and the American people have a right to know where their taxpayer dollars are going.
"Therefore, during the consideration of the financial reform bill, we will offer an amendment to increase transparency at the Federal Reserve. Specifically, our amendment:
"-- Requires the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct an independent and comprehensive audit of the Federal Reserve within one year after the date of enactment of the financial reform bill.
"-- Requires the GAO to submit a report to Congress detailing its findings and conclusion of their independent audit of the Fed within 3 months.
"-- Requires the Federal Reserve within one month after the date of enactment to disclose the names of the financial institutions and foreign central banks that received financial assistance from the Fed since the start of the recession, how much they received, and the exact terms of this taxpayer assistance.
"-- Does not interfere with or dictate the monetary policies or decisions of the Federal Reserve.
"Fifty-nine Senators, 320 members of Congress, and two federal courts have called on the Federal Reserve to become more transparent.
"Our amendment is similar to an amendment that was offered to last year's budget resolution that passed the Senate on a bipartisan vote of 59-39 on April 1, 2009; S604, the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act, which now has 33 bipartisan co-sponsors; and the Federal Reserve Transparency Act (HR1207), which has 320 bipartisan co-sponsors (a version of which passed the House Financial Services Committee by a vote of 43-28 and was incorporated into the financial reform bill that passed the House last December).
"In August 2009, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York also ordered the Fed to disclose the recipients of this taxpayer assistance as a result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Bloomberg News. This decision was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan on March 19, 2010.
"The Senate Financial Reform Bill does not do enough to make the Fed more transparent.
"While the Senate financial reform bill attempts to address the lack of transparency at the Fed, as currently drafted, much of the information regarding the details of who received this financial assistance could be kept secret forever.
"As long as the Federal Reserve is allowed to keep the information on their loans secret, we may never know the true financial condition of the banking system. The lack of transparency at the Fed could lead to an even bigger crisis in the future.
"We now know that the lack of transparency in credit default swaps led to the $182 billion taxpayer bailout of AIG; the collapse of Lehman Brothers and precipitated the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
"We know who received TARP funding.
"Anyone with access to the Internet can go onto the Treasury Department's Website and find out exactly who received a bailout from the $700 billion TARP program. The American people have a right to know the same information from the Fed.
"The Sanders Amendment does not undermine the Fed's independence.
"This amendment does not take away the 'independence' of the Fed and it does not put monetary policy into the hands of Congress.
"This amendment does not tell the Federal Reserve when to cut short-term interest rates or when to raise them. It does not tell the Federal Reserve what banks to lend money to and what banks not to lend money to. It does not tell the Federal Reserve what foreign central banks they can do business with and which ones it cannot do business with. It does not impose any new regulations on the Federal Reserve nor does it take any regulatory authority away from the Fed.
"This amendment simply requires the GAO to conduct an independent audit of the Fed and requires the Fed to release the names of the recipients of more than $2 trillion in taxpayer-backed assistance.
"For nearly nine decades, the GAO has a proven track record of conducting objective, fact-based, nonpartisan, non-ideological, fair, and balanced audits. Through these audits, the GAO helped save the American taxpayers $50 billion last year alone by rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government.
"Let's not equate independence with secrecy. We cannot let the Fed operate in secrecy any longer. There is simply too much money at stake."
* * *
Support GATA by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt:
Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009:
http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal
Or a video disc of GATA's 2005 Gold Rush 21 conference in the Yukon:
* * *
Help keep GATA going
GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:
To contribute to GATA, please visit:
http://www.gata.org/node/16
Prophecy Resource Corp. Appoints Rob McEwen to Advisory Board
Prophecy Resource Corp. (TSX.V: PCY, OTC: PCYRF) is pleased to announce the appointment of Rob McEwen to the company's Advisory Board. McEwen is a leading Canadian mining industry entrepreneur. He is the chairman and CEO of U.S. Gold Corp. and Minera Andes Inc. McEwen was the founder and former chairman and CEO of Goldcorp Inc., whose Red Lake Mine in northwestern Ontario, Canada, is considered to be the richest gold mine in the world. During his tenure at Goldcorp, McEwen transformed the company from a collection of small companies into a mining powerhouse, growing its market capitalization from $50 million to approximately $8 billion.
For Prophecy Resource Corp.'s complete statement:
http://www.prophecyresource.com/news_2010_mar11b.php
