A House-passed provision to open up the Federal Reserve to an audit by the Government Accountability Office is unlikely to be included in the Senate reform package, Barney Frank told a meeting of House Financial Services Committee members Wednesday, according to people in the room.
Frank, chairman of the committee, told the members that Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) told him that he had assured Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) that it wouldn’t be a part of the bill. Gregg has been a strident opponent of the effort to open the Fed to an audit.
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Last November, Gregg said that "passage of the Paul Amendment by the House Financial Services Committee is a dangerous move by this Congress to pander to the populist anger currently directed against our central bank, the Federal Reserve," in a statement after the committee approved an amendment sponsored by Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Alan Grayson (D-Fla.).
On Wednesday, Gregg told HuffPost he wasn’t aware that the Fed audit provision wouldn’t be part of the final package.
"I’m not aware this happened. I’ve not been involved in this negotiation, so I’m probably the wrong person to talk to, because I don’t know anything about it," Gregg said.
Dodd is negotiating the Fed-audit provision directly with Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). Spokespersons for Dodd and Shelby didn’t respond to requests for comment.
January 22, 2010
