Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) could be one of the biggest obstacles to passing audit the Fed in the Senate. As a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Senator Corker has been an outspoken opponent of the Federal Reserve Transparency Act.<\/p>\n
Corker recently said: \u201cPeople say this, audit the Fed, and I don\u2019t think they really realize the Fed is audited and what this is really about is Congress getting involved in monetary policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n
The Federal Reserve is not fully audited. The audits that Corker is referring to are very limited in scope and not enough. Auditors at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) are only allowed to look at the Fed\u2019s financial statements\u2014not the Fed\u2019s monetary policy operations.<\/p>\n
According to Campaign for Liberty, auditors are prohibited from law from looking at:<\/p>\n
transactions conducted on behalf of or with foreign central banks, foreign governments, and nonprivate international financing organizations<\/p>\n
deliberations, decisions, and actions on monetary policy matters, including discount window operations, reserves of member banks, securities credit, interest on deposits, and open market operations<\/p>\n
transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee including transactions of the Federal Reserve System Open Market Account; and<\/p>\n
those portions of oral, written, telegraphic, or telephonic discussions and communications among or between Members of the Board of Governors, and officers and employees of the Federal Reserve System which deal with topics listed in subparagraphs<\/p>\n
That means that the most important decisions at the Fed that affect the American people are decided behind closed doors.<\/p>\n