At the Montpelier Tea Party I mentioned in my speech the abusive monetary policy that we have been subjected to. I invited Jim Hogue to speak about the Federal Reserve. The Campaign For Liberty distributed information about the Federal Reserve and a very important bill in Congress right now which would require an audit of the Fed. It's time for each and every one of us to put our mouth where our money is and call Peter Welch, urging him to support HR1207, "The Federal Reserve Transparency Act".This is the complete text of the bill:H. R. 1207To amend title 31, United States Code, to reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States and the manner in which such audits are reported, and for other purposes.IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESFebruary 26, 2009Mr. Paul (for himself, Mr. Kagen, Mrs. Bachmann, Mr. Bartlett, Mr. Jones, Mr. Rehberg, Mr. Posey, Mr. Broun of Georgia, Mr. Poe of Texas, Mr. Burton of Indiana, Mr. Abercrombie, and Ms. Woolsey) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial ServicesA BILLBe it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,SECTION 1. Short title.This Act may be cited as the “Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009”.SEC. 2. Audit reform and transparency for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.(a) In general.—Subsection (b) of section 714 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking all after “shall audit an agency” and inserting a period.(b) Audit.—Section 714 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:“(e) Audit and report of the Federal Reserve System.—“(1) In general.—The audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks under subsection (b) shall be completed before the end of 2010.“(2) Report.—“(A) Required.—A report on the audit referred to in paragraph (1) shall be submitted by the Comptroller General to the Congress before the end of the 90-day period beginning on the date on which such audit is completed and made available to the Speaker of the House, the majority and minority leaders of the House of Representatives, the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the committee and each subcommittee of jurisdiction in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and any other Member of Congress who requests it.“(B) Contents.—The report under subparagraph (A) shall include a detailed description of the findings and conclusion of the Comptroller General with respect to the audit that is the subject of the report, together with such recommendations for legislative or administrative action as the Comptroller General may determine to be appropriate.”.************************************************** ***That's it. An audit of the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is mistakenly assumed to be a government entity, like the Treasury Department. There are a number of books and articles which discuss the origins of the Federal Reserve. Some people are turned off by the idea of discussing the Fed because it smells too much like conspiracy theory. However we all know that something's not quite right about our monetary system.The fact is we've been robbed, just as Jim said in his speech. It's about time the Federal Reserve opened its books and showed us the money. (I've written this last sentence 3 ways and I still can't do it without a pun!)These quotes are from this great article:On December 23, 1913, the Federal Reserve Act, also known as the Glass-Owen Bill, was passed. The Republican controlled Senate rammed the bill through when many members of the US Congress were home for the holiday. The President, Dr. Thomas Woodrow Wilson, signed it into law one hour after being passed by the Congress! Somebody very powerful really wanted this law passed. The Federal Reserve System is an independent central bank. Although the President of the United States appoints the chairman of the Fed, and this appointment is approved by the United States Senate, the decisions of the Fed do not have to be ratified by the President, or anyone else in the executive branch of the United States government. Buried in the legislation was the granting of total power over the monetary policies of all US banks. A very curious statement is found in the original 1913 law. SEC. 30. The right to amend, alter, or repeal this Act is hereby expressly reserved. Reserved expressly to whom, or what? No definition is provided. This is the entire Section 30 statement!Stock not held by member banks shall not be entitled to voting power. This clause guarantees that no outsider can justify buying shares in the Federal Reserve.SEC. 25.Any national banking association possessing a capital and surplus of 1,000,000 dollars or more may file application with the Federal ReserveBoard, upon such conditions and under such regulations as may be prescribed by the said board, for the purpose of securing authority to establish branches in foreign countries or dependencies of theUnited States for the furtherance of the foreign commerce of the United States, and to act, if required to do so, as fiscal agents of the United States. Such application shall specify, in addition tothe name and capital of the banking association filing it, the place or places where the bankingoperations proposed are to be carried on, and the amount of capital set aside for the conduct of its foreign business. The Federal Reserve Board shall have power to approve or to reject such application if, in its judgment, the amount of capital proposed to be set aside for the conduct of foreign business is inadequate, or if for other reasons the granting of such application is deemed inexpedient. Wow, the US government has no formal control over the foreign operations of the Federal Reserve banks! The Federal Reserve banks are exempt from all taxation. These people are very independent. Independent of audits, independent of congressional supervision, and independent of the American voter.***Last week, Ed Towns (chair of the Oversight and Reform Committee) and Dennis Kucinich (chair of the subcommittee on Domestic Policy) issued a pair of letters to Timothy Geithner and Ben Bernanke. Read these letters. They are demanding an expanded investigation into the alleged strong-arming by the Fed and Treasury to force Bank of America to file fraudulent claims with the SEC in the acquisition of Merrill Lynch. They have asked for documents once already and were disregarded. Now what I find really troubling is that Peter Welch sits on this committee. He knows what's going on yet he has not indicated that he intends to call for any increased transparency in regard to the Fed.It's time to put an end to this abuse. Interestingly Peter Welch, who sits on the Government Oversight and Reform Committee hasn't co-sponsored it. Why not, Peter Welch? Does he think that the American People don't have the right to know what's being done with their money? In fact, Bernie Sanders has introduced similar legislation in the Senate (S. 604). With all of this activity around him his silence is suspect.I have been calling Peter Welch's office daily urging him to co-sponsor HR1207. I have informed office staff that I will call every day until he signs onto it or gives an explanation why he will not. Early last week the bill had 62 co-sponsors. By Tuesday morning, through the hard work of Campaign For Liberty volunteers and members around the country another 30 co-sponsors were gained. Increased pressure and an official Action Day on Tuesday yielded 8 more. We are now at 100 co-sponsors. This should be enough to force it out of committee and onto the House floor for debate but we must not make assumptions.As part of the Campaign For Liberty Action Day I spent an hour in the park on Main Street in Burlington talking to people, passing out literature and asking for signatures on a petition. It was a very last minute thing but out of 41 people I asked, 35 signed the petition. I then brought the petitions to Peter Welch's office. You may have heard me on the radio Tuesday morning talking about the action day. I was on the Comment Show in St. Albans and True North Radio. I sent out a limited email earlier in the week and asked for support in contacting Peter Welch.Now I'm asking you, my Tea Party friends, to make your voices loud and clear. Email, fax and call Peter Welch's offices. If you've already done it, do it again. Join me in being a squeaky wheel. If you're in Burlington even better-- GO to his office and tell them that you are there to ask Peter Welch to co-sponsor HR 1207, The Federal Reserve Transparency Act.Vermont Office30 Main StreetThird Floor, Suite 350Burlington, VT 05401Phone: (888) 605-7270 (toll free in Vermont)(802) 652-2450Washington, DC Office1404 Longworth House Office BuildingWashington, DC 20515Phone202) 225-4115Emails can be sent using this form: http://www.house.gov/formwelch/issue_subscribe.htm Thanks, everyone! We can do this!