Financial safety

Banksters win again: 'Audit the Fed' bill fails in the Senate

A bill that would have allowed Congress to order reviews of Federal Reserve interest-rate policy decisions failed a procedural test in the Senate on Tuesday as supporters failed to come up with the 60 votes needed to cut off debate on the measures. 

The measure to curb the powers of the Fed has been a central theme of the presidential campaign of Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky. The legislation would end a ban on the Government Accountability Office's authority to audit the U.S. central bank's monetary policy moves that has been in place since 1978. The Republican House has already approved the measure. 

The bill was designed to "pull back the curtain and uncover the cloak of secrecy" at the Fed, Paul said on the Senate floor. He said there had not been a full accounting for the swelling of the Fed's balance sheet — to $4.5 trillion from roughly $800 billion before the financial crisis.