Ron Paul’s latest Audit the Fed bill passes Committee

The House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform passed Texas Congressman Ron Paul‘s “Audit the Fed” bill on Wednesday. It is scheduled to be examined by the House in July.

Dr. Paul‘s bill would scrap a number of restrictions which currently prevent some audits from being carried out on the Federal Reserve.

For instance, some transactions the U.S. central bank conducts with foreign central banks, foreign governments, or some international financing organizations may not be subject to auditing exercises.

Should Dr. Paul‘s bill be adopted be the House and become law, all audit restrictions would be lifted. The Texas congressman’s legislation would require the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a comprehensive audit of the central bank.

One House representative, Elijah Cummings (D-MD), proposed an amendment to prevent the GAO from pouring over the Federal Reserve’s discussions surrounding monetary policy. However, Congressman Cummings withdrew his amendment after the committee’s chairman, Darrell Issa (R-CA), pointed out that such a change to the Texas congressman’s proposal would have gutted the bill.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who has introduced a similar bill in the Senate, welcomed the committee’s decision.

“It is important that we get our economy growing again through savings and investment, not more debt and deficit spending. But we can’t turn the economy around until we fix the root of the problem: an unaccountable Federal Reserve. A complete and thorough audit of the Fed will finally allow the American people to know exactly how their money is being spent by Washington,” Dr. Paul‘s son explained in a press release.

So far, 257 lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have co-sponsored Dr. Paul‘s bill.