After several hours of heated debate, the Paul-Grayson “Audit the Fed” amendment passed 43-26 in the House Financial Services Committee earlier today. The amendment calls for a comprehensive audit of the Federal Reserve and replaces the opposing “placebo” amendment proposed by Mel Watt.
The Paul-Grayson initiative is an amendment to Barney Frank’s HR 3996, also known as the “Financial Stability Improvement Act of 2009″. The Committee was going to vote on that bill today, but Barney Frank surprisingly postponed the vote until after the Thanksgiving recess:
(Rep. Barney) Frank told the panel that most of the members pushing him to postpone the vote were members of the Congressional Black Caucus who said that the political environment wasn’t right for a vote this afternoon.
“It’s my understanding,” Frank said, “that the issues being addressed are not internal to this bill.” In other words, the Democrats were not expressing particular problems with the bill itself, but the larger problems in the economy made them reluctant to support a bill that could be portrayed as too friendly to Wall Street.
Ron Paul sent out the following press release shortly after the amendment passed:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington, D.C. – Congressman Ron Paul (TX-14) is pleased to announce that his and Congressman Grayson’s amendment based on HR 1207 has passed in the Financial Services Committee by a vote of 43-26 and will be included in major banking reform legislation.
The Paul/Grayson amendment:
- Removes the blanket restrictions on GAO audits of the Fed
- Allows audit of every item on the Fed’s balance sheet, all credit facilities, all securities purchase programs, etc.
- Retains limited audit exemption on unreleased transcripts and minutes
- Sets 180-day time lag before details of Fed’s market actions may be released
- States that nothing in the amendment shall be construed as interference in or dictation of monetary policy by Congress or the GAO
“While HR 3996, if passed, will grant sweeping new powers to the Federal Reserve, at least with this amendment attached, it won’t be acting in secret anymore. This is a major victory for Federal Reserve transparency and government accountability,” stated Congressman Paul.
How they voted (HR 1207 co-sponsors in bold):
| Democrats | |||
| MA-04 | Rep. Barney Frank | nay | |
| PA-11 | Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski | nay | |
| CA-35 | Rep. Maxine Waters | nay | |
| NY-14 | Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney | nay | |
| IL-04 | Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez | nay | |
| NY-12 | Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez | nay | |
| NC-12 | Rep. Melvin L. Watt | nay | |
| NY-05 | Rep. Gary L. Ackerman | nay | |
| CA-27 | Rep. Brad Sherman | aye | |
| NY-06 | Rep. Gregory W. Meeks | nay | |
| KS-03 | Rep. Dennis Moore | nay | |
| MA-08 | Rep. Michael E. Capuano | nay | |
| TX-15 | Rep. Rubén Hinojosa | aye | |
| MO-01 | Rep. William Lacy Clay | aye | |
| NY-04 | Rep. Carolyn McCarthy | nay | |
| CA-43 | Rep. Joe Baca | ||
| MA-09 | Rep. Stephen F. Lynch | nay | |
| CA-42 | Rep. Gary G. Miller | nay | |
| GA-13 | Rep. David Scott | aye | |
| TX-09 | Rep. Al Green | nay | |
| MO-05 | Rep. Emanuel Cleaver | nay | |
| IL-08 | Rep. Melissa L. Bean | nay | |
| WI-04 | Rep. Gwen Moore | nay | |
| NH-02 | Rep. Paul W. Hodes | aye | |
| MN-05 | Rep. Keith Ellison | nay | |
| FL-22 | Rep. Ron Klein | nay | |
| OH-06 | Rep. Charles Wilson | nay | |
| CO-07 | Rep. Ed Perlmutter | aye | |
| IN-02 | Rep. Joe Donnelly | nay | |
| IL-14 | Rep. Bill Foster | nay | |
| IN-07 | Rep. Andre Carson | nay | |
| CA-12 | Rep. Jackie Speier | aye | |
| MS-01 | Rep. Travis Childers | aye | |
| ID-01 | Rep. Walt Minnick | aye | |
| NJ-03 | Rep. John Adler | aye | |
| OH-15 | Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy | nay | |
| OH-01 | Rep. Steve Driehaus | aye | |
| FL-24 | Rep. Suzanne Kosmas | aye | |
| FL-08 | Rep. Alan Grayson | aye | |
| CT-04 | Rep. Jim Himes | nay | |
| MI-09 | Rep. Gary Peters | aye | |
| NY-25 | Rep. Dan Maffei | aye | |
| Republicans | |||
| AL-06 | Rep. Spencer Bachus | aye | |
| TX-19 | Rep. Randy Neugebauer | aye | |
| DE-01 | Rep. Michael N. Castle | aye | |
| NY-03 | Rep. Peter King | aye | |
| CA-40 | Rep. Edward R. Royce | aye | |
| OK-03 | Rep. Frank D. Lucas | aye | |
| TX-14 | Rep. Ron Paul (sponsor) | aye | |
| IL-16 | Rep. Donald A. Manzullo | aye | |
| NC-03 | Rep. Walter B. Jones | aye | |
| IL-13 | Rep. Judy Biggert | aye | |
| NC-13 | Rep. Brad Miller | ||
| WV-02 | Rep. Shelley Moore Capito | aye | |
| TX-05 | Rep. Jeb Hensarling | aye | |
| NJ-05 | Rep. Scott Garrett | aye | |
| SC-03 | Rep. J. Gresham Barrett | aye | |
| PA-06 | Rep. Jim Gerlach | aye | |
| GA-06 | Rep. Tom Price | aye | |
| NC-10 | Rep. Patrick T. McHenry | aye | |
| CA-48 | Rep. John Campbell | aye | |
| FL-12 | Rep. Adam Putnam | aye | |
| MN-06 | Rep. Michele Bachmann | aye | |
| TX-24 | Rep. Kenny Marchant | aye | |
| MI-11 | Rep. Thaddeus McCotter | aye | |
| CA-22 | Rep. Kevin McCarthy | aye | |
| FL-15 | Rep. Bill Posey | aye | |
| KS-02 | Rep. Lynn Jenkins | aye | |
| NY-26 | Rep. Christopher Lee | aye | |
| MN-03 | Rep. Erik Paulsen | aye | |
| NJ-07 | Rep. Leonard Lance | aye |
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