WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — 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.

Read more: A look at what’s behind the ‘Audit the Fed’ battle

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.

Just 53 senators voted to halt debate on the bill Tuesday. Sixty or more votes for “cloture” would have paved the way for possible final passage of the bill.

Sarah Binder, a professor of political science at George Washington University, said the measure had not been expected to pass. The timing of the vote was a political favor from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to his fellow Kentucky senator, she said.

“It gives Sen. Paul an opportunity to bolster his anti-Fed credentials on the campaign trail, to attract a little attention pre-Iowa caucuses and help to define the differences between the parties on the Fed,” Binder said.

The bulk of the measure’s opposition came from Democrats.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat who is the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, said Congress should “keep its hands out of monetary policy.”

Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen called the bill “a grave mistake” and warned the measure could lead to higher market interest rates.

Republicans said the Fed’s bond-buying policies in the wake of the financial crisis showed the need for more Congressional oversight of the central bank.

“I think that the dangerous behavior the Fed has engaged in for years now means they have squandered the right to be independent,’ said Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican from Pennsylvania and supporter of the measure.

Toomey called the bill a “good beginning step” to reform the U.S. central bank.

The vote was not strictly along party lines.

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, voted for the measure.

Florida Republican Senator and presidential candidate Marco Rubio also voted in favor of Paul’s legislation.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who is also running for the Republican presidential nomination, did not vote