Congressman Grayson Now Backs Sanders Amendment

Congressman Grayson's office sent me the following announcement:

Rep. Alan Grayson Applauds Upcoming Partial Victory in Senate

“There is deep bipartisan support for a full audit of the Federal Reserve, in both the House and the Senate. The Sanders Amendment takes a significant step in that direction. I will work hard to help Dr. Paul and Senator Sanders to get a full Fed audit in the final bank reform bill. It is time for America to know what happened to our money.”

If Senator Sanders’ Federal Reserve Transparency Amendment passes in its current form, as we hope and expect, then America will finally find out about every secret bailout and ‘help for our friends’ slush fund established and perpetrated by the Federal Reserve in the past three years. This includes not only the so-called “Section 13(3) facilities,” but importantly, foreign currency swaps and mortgage-backed securities as well.

The Fed will be brought to account for its favoritism for the benefit of huge failed banks from 2007 through today. We expect that when we finally see what the Federal Reserve has been up to, the public will be outraged. Releasing this information will show that the Federal Reserve’s arguments for secrecy are -- and have always been -- a ruse, to cover up the handing out of hundreds of billions of dollars like party favors to the Wall Street institutions who brought the American economy to the brink of ruin.

The continued government lobbying against the Sanders Amendment should end now. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke doesn’t want an audit because Ben Bernanke doesn’t want to be audited. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, the former head of the New York Fed, doesn’t want an audit because Tim Geithner doesn’t want to be audited. This is stating the obvious. But we cannot let legislation be determined by the personal vested interest of high government officials. What matters is not what’s good for them, but what’s good for America.

Yet when it does pass, the Sanders Amendment is only a partial victory. The most important improvement over what the Sanders Amendment offers would be to subject the Fed to audit for what it does going forward. To say that America can learn about only what the Fed has done already is like trying to drive a car by looking only in the rearview mirror.

The Fed is an institution that has the power to hand out hundreds of billions of dollars on a whim. Because of that power, the Fed must always be subject to independent audit -- completely, and without reservation.

AUDIT THE FED.

Last I heard, Ron Paul is still opposing the Sanders Amendment. I will update this post if that changes.