More Fed transparency coming?

The vote for “Audit the Fed” legislation may come as early as Tuesday

The vote for “Audit the Fed” legislation may come as early as Tuesday.

Senator Rand Paul has re-introduced the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, colloquially referred to as the Audit the Fed bill, which could be voted on Tuesday.

“It is finally time that the Federal Reserve’s shroud of secrecy is revealed and we find out what they have been up to,” U.S. Senator Rand Paul, wrote on his Facebook page over the weekend. “No more bailouts to Wall Street and political insiders. No more trillion dollar bailouts to foreign banks. The time has finally come to audit the Federal Reserve and expose their secrets.”

The bill has 30 co-sponsors.

“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,” Paul said in a statement. “The Fed’s currently operates under a cloak of secrecy and it has gone on for too long. The American people have a right to know what the Federal Reserve is doing with our nation’s money supply. The time to act is now.”

Even if the bill does pass, President Barack Obama would likely veto it. He threatened as much the last time a similar bill was passed.

“The Federal Reserve is an independent entity designed to be free from political pressures, and its independence is key to its credibility and its ability to act in the long-term interest of the Nation’s economic health,” the Obama administration wrote after the bill had been passed.

That bill, authored by Rep. Bill Huizenga, 241-185 in late November.

At the time, Fed Chair Janet Yellen argued the bill would impede the Fed’s ability to set policy.

“The bill would severely impair the Federal Reserve’s ability to carry out its congressional mandate and would be a grave mistake, detrimental to the economy and the American people,” Yellen wrote in a letter to congress.