Bipartisan support growing for audit of Federal Reserve

Bipartisan support is growing for an amendment to the financial regulatory reform bill that calls for an audit of the Federal Reserve.

Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) joined 19 of his colleagues Tuesday, including 11 other Republicans in co-sponsoring an amendment that allows the nonpartisan General Accounting Office to dig into the central bank's balance sheet. 

"Since the Federal Reserve has shelled out more than two trillion taxpayer dollars to financial institutions during this financial crisis, it is past time for the American people and Congress to receive a full accounting of who is getting assistance, how much they are getting and how the money is being spent," Hatch said in a release. "Unfortunately, the Federal Reserve has not made the information transparent. That is wrong and needs to change."

To bolster the struggling housing market, the Fed has expanded its balance sheet to more than $2.3 trillion, buying up mortgage-backed securities. The Fed completed that program at the end of March. 

Sponsor Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called his amendment "conservative" but said he is concerned that lobbyists will successfully weaken the amendment. 

Still he expects the amendment to not only get a vote on the floor but garner at least 60 votes because it is backed by a coalition of moderate, progressive and conservative organizations, Sanders told reporters today. 

"We have the support," he said. 

The AFL-CIO, National Taxpayers Union, AARP, FreedomWorks and Americans for Tax Reform back the bill. 

The amendment was prompted by a conversation between Sanders and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke who told him he wouldn't release a list of the financial institutions that received "trillions of dollars on near zero interest loans."

A nearly identical provision is included in the House-passed measure. 

The amendment requires the an independent audit within one year of enactment of the bill, requires the GAO to submit a report to Congress, require the Fed to disclose the names of the financial institutions and foreign central banks that received assistance since the start of the recession, how much they received and the terms. The amendment doesn't allow interference on the Fed's monetary policy. 

Besides Sanders and Hatch the bill has 18 other co-sponsors: Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.); Bob Bennett (R-Utah); Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.); Sam Brownback (R-Kan.); Ron Wyden (D-Ore.); John McCain (R-Ariz.); Russ Feingold (D-Wis.); David Vitter (R-La.); Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.); Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa); Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.); Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.); Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.); Roger Wicker (R-Miss.); Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.); Jim Risch (R-Idaho); Mike Crapo (R-Idaho); Jim Bunning (R-Ky.).