Democrats successfully defended the Federal Reserve Tuesday, voting to filibuster Sen. Rand Paul’s bill to impose an audit on the secretive central bank and dealing a blow to a years long effort.Mr. Paul and his father, former Rep. Ron Paul, had made an audit of the fed a key issue in their presidential campaigns, and it had attracted strong bipartisan support in the House.
But Senate Democrats broke with their House counterparts, saying they feared a nefarious effort to try to undermine the Fed’s
dual goals of managing financial markets and promoting job growth,
expecting conservatives to use the information from the audits to push
the Fed to tilt its decisions toward Wall Street.
“It will give conservative members of Congress more tools to second-guess the Fed’s decision-making,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, Ohio Democrat.
The filibuster left Republicans seven votes shy of the 60 votes needed to advance their bill, likely dooming the legislation for the foreseeable future.
The Federal Reserve’s role in U.S. financial policies drew scrutiny after it made trillions of dollars worth of moves during the Wall Street collapse.
Rand Paul said the Fed should be subject to an independent audit, conducted by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, to look at both the Fed’s decision-making on monetary policy and its open-market agreements with foreign banks.
He said the bill was needed because top Fed officials regularly refuse to answer questions about basics such as what foreign banks they have agreements with.
“Both Republicans and Democrats agree that it absurd that we do not know where hundreds of billions of dollars are going,” Mr. Paul said.
An audit bill passed the House in the previous Congress on a striking bipartisan 333-92 vote. But a broader Fed overhaul the House voted on last year was more divisive, clearing on a near party-line vote.
“It will give conservative members of Congress more tools to second-guess the Fed’s decision-making,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, Ohio Democrat.
The filibuster left Republicans seven votes shy of the 60 votes needed to advance their bill, likely dooming the legislation for the foreseeable future.
The Federal Reserve’s role in U.S. financial policies drew scrutiny after it made trillions of dollars worth of moves during the Wall Street collapse.
Rand Paul said the Fed should be subject to an independent audit, conducted by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, to look at both the Fed’s decision-making on monetary policy and its open-market agreements with foreign banks.
He said the bill was needed because top Fed officials regularly refuse to answer questions about basics such as what foreign banks they have agreements with.
“Both Republicans and Democrats agree that it absurd that we do not know where hundreds of billions of dollars are going,” Mr. Paul said.
An audit bill passed the House in the previous Congress on a striking bipartisan 333-92 vote. But a broader Fed overhaul the House voted on last year was more divisive, clearing on a near party-line vote.
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