Washington – Congressman Bill Shuster joined an overwhelming majority of his colleagues in the House of Representatives in passing Congressman Ron Paul’s Federal Reserve Transparency Act (H.R. 459). This legislation, cosponsored by Shuster, authorizes the Government Accountability Office to audit the Fed’s monetary policy operations and directs GAO to report these audit results to Congress.

“Monetary policy operations and agreements with foreign central banks make up the majority of the Federal Reserve’s transactions, so it would make sense that these operations should be subject to an audit.  Under current law, however, the GAO is prohibited from auditing these specific operations. It’s time for real transparency and for taxpayers to know what is happening with their hard earned dollars,” said Shuster.

Paul’s legislation will grant the GAO the authority to examine the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet without the current special exemptions, and will ensure that all of the Federal Reserve’s lending actions will be subject to oversight. H.R. 459 removes restrictions on GAO audits of the Federal Reserve, which pertain to monetary policy, allowing for a full audit. 

The “Audit the Fed” legislation also requires a one-time audit to be completed by the GAO and a report submitted to Congress within 12 months of enactment. In addition, future audits will be authorized to be performed by GAO without the current restrictions and exemptions on what can be examined.

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