http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=26686

Washington D.C. October 20, 2009 -Today, Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Bob Corker (R-TN) introducedthe Federal Reserve Accountability Act, an attempted compromise on the issue of transparency for America's secretive central bank. The bill would permit an audit of the Fed's actions in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and similar high profile bailouts, but would not allow Congress to review the Fed's inflation of the money supply or the its agreements with foreign central banks.

Legislation that would bring a full audit of the Fed, Congressman Ron Paul's H.R. 1207 and its Senate companion S. 604, has gained strong grassroots support and built tremendous pressure on banking special interests.

Opponents of Fed Transparency argue that a full audit of the Federal Reserve would damage the central bank's "independence" and allow Congress to dictate monetary policy.

"Claims that transparency at the Federal Reserve would leave Congress in charge of monetary policy are simply bogus," said Jesse Benton, Senior Vice President of Campaign for Liberty. "There is absolutely no reason why The American People should not be able to review the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee after a reasonable amount of time has passed."

"The Federal Reserve Accountability Act does not audit the monetary policy functions which have been responsible for our deteriorating dollar and so many of our current economic problems, and it is not an acceptable piece of legislation. Campaign for Liberty will continue to push for a full audit of the Fed."

The announcement of the new legislation comes after the number of cosponsors in the House of Representatives for H.R. 1207 recently climbed to 303, and S. 604 gained 30 senate cosponsors. Campaign for Liberty has been leading the grassroots effort on H.R .1207, getting it to its current point with 75% of Americans showing support for a thorough audit of the Federal Reserve.