AUDIT THE FEDERAL RESERVE!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 2, 2010

CONTACT: Mary Bottari at (608) 260-9713 or mary [at] prwatch.org

AUDIT THE FEDERAL RESERVE!
SEND A MESSAGE TO YOUR SENATOR AT WWW.BANKSTERUSA.ORG

This week, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) and a tripartisan list of colleagues introduced an amendment to the financial reform bill being debated in the Congress to audit the Federal Reserve.

According to the Center for Media and Democracy's recent accounting of the bailout, cited on CNN, Bill Moyers and MSNBC, $4.7 trillion was disbursed to prop up the financial system and $2 trillion of that is still outstanding, mostly in the form of loans from the Federal Reserve. (See Total Wall Street Bailout Cost table). While the Treasury Department is posting TARP bailout recipients and amounts on their web page (approximately 10% of the bailout total), the Federal Reserve is still refusing to tell us the details about where Fed money went and what U.S. taxpayers received in collateral.

This is why taxpayers deserve a full, and public audit of the secretive Federal Reserve. Even after two federal court decisions ruling that the Fed needs to make public key information on their emergency lending programs, the Fed has failed to comply and is fighting to keep its books in the dark.

The Senate financial reform bill does provide for an audit of the Federal Reserve, but the audit provisions PROHIBIT the GAO from making public key pieces of information for extended periods of time. The bill would turn this information over to Congressional committees, but not the public.

That is why Senator Sanders is rallying the troops behind a much stronger amendment that parallels the Ron Paul-Alan Grayson audit language from the House financial reform bill. Now if Senate leaders would only put the amendment to a vote, we might find out where this money is going and if the taxpayers are getting a raw deal.

EMAIL YOUR SENATOR AT WWW.BANKSTERUSA.ORG AND TELL THEM TO AUDIT THE FED!

Posted by Chuck Bell at 9:19 AM