The Senate on Tuesday rejected Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) controversial proposal to audit the Federal Reserve, turning aside a bill that has drawn the ire of the business community and the White House.
The Senate voted 53-44 on taking up the presidential hopeful’s Audit the Fed measure. Sixty votes were needed to move forward.
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/265589-senate-rejects-pauls-audit-the-fed-push
The Fed is fully audited by Deloitte & Touche each year. Rand Paul’s “audit” is an attempt to have Congress dictate monetary policy so that the Fed’s independence is eliminated and any stimulus (which greatly helped in the recent recovery) could be thwarted by legislators.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the ranking member of the Banking Committee, added ahead of the vote that the legislation "really solves nothing but to politicize the Fed."
Senator Elizabeth Warren also voted against the bill.
"Requiring the Government Accountability Office to conduct a full and independent audit of the Fed each and every year, would be an important step towards making the Federal Reserve a more democratic institution that is responsive to the needs of ordinary Americans rather than the billionaires on Wall Street," the Independent said in a statement.
You’re being played by the GOP, Senator. That audit you want is performed every year.
In other news concerning the Fed:
The Federal Reserve said Monday it sent a record $97.7 billion in profits to the U.S. Treasury as the central bank's vast holdings of mortgage-backed securities and other investments continued to produce a bumper crop of interest income.
On top of that, the Fed said it sent an additional $19.3 billion from a capital surplus account to help fund federal infrastructure projects under a controversial provision Congress included in a five-year highway bill in December.
Fed Chairwoman Janet L. Yellen opposed tapping the surplus funds to pay for roads, bridges and other transportation projects, telling lawmakers that the move "sets a bad precedent and impinges on the independence of the central bank."
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-federal-reserve-profit-20160111-story.html