WASHINGTON–Two senators have introduced legislation that seeks to provide more oversight of the Federal Reserve.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Pat Toomey (R-PA), ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, have introduced the Financial Regulators Transparency Act, which they said would “strengthen Federal Reserve accountability and ensure that no financial regulator can withhold critical ethics-related information from Congress.”
“During the largest ethics scandal in the history of the Federal Reserve system, Fed officials have stonewalled the American people and slow-walked their representatives in Congress," Warren said in a statement. "This bipartisan bill is a necessary response to ensure that no financial regulators can ignore congressional oversight into ethics failures, and finally deliver more transparency and accountability for any wrongdoing.”
Added Toomey with a statement of his own, “The Fed and regional Fed banks, despite being creatures of Congress, obstruct congressional oversight inquiries all too often. In light of this persistent refusal to comply with reasonable requests for information from both Republicans and Democrats, I’m glad to join with Senator Warren in pursuing reforms that will compel these public institutions to be more transparent and accountable to the American people.”
Specifically, the Act proposes three levels of reform:
Federal Reserve Regional Bank Reforms
The Act:
- Subjects the regional Federal Reserve Banks to FOIA and Federal Records Act (recordkeeping law), as they are not currently subject to these laws
- Provides all members of Congress the same ability to obtain information from the Fed regional banks that congressional committee chairs currently have to obtain info from other federal agencies, with some exceptions
- Forbids Fed regional banks from withholding info requested by a member of Congress under FOIA on the grounds that the info is privileged pursuant to a common law privilege
- Provides that Fed regional banks must prioritize FOIA requests made by a member of Congress
- Prevents Fed regional banks from charging a member of Congress fees to process their FOIA request
- Gives a member of Congress who has filed a FOIA request standing to bring a federal lawsuit against Fed regional banks to petition the court to order them to produce any record improperly withheld.
Financial Regulator Reforms
The Act:
- Provides all members of Congress the same ability to obtain ethics-related information from financial regulators that congressional committee chairs currently have to obtain information from the financial regulators: the Fed Board and Reserve Banks, CFPB, SEC, FDIC, OCC, NCUA, and FHFA.
- Forbids financial regulators from withholding info requested by a member of Congress under FOIA on the grounds that the info is privileged pursuant to a common law privilege.
- Provides that financial regulators must prioritize FOIA requests made by a member of Congress.
- Prevents financial regulators from charging a member of Congress fees to process their FOIA request.
- Gives a member of Congress who has filed a FOIA request standing to bring a federal lawsuit against financial regulators to petition the court to order them to produce any record improperly withheld.
Federal Reserve Inspector General (IG) Reforms
The Act:
- Makes the Fed IG a presidentially appointed and Senate-confirmed position.
- Clarifies that the Fed IG does not need the permission of a Fed regional bank in order to conduct oversight of a Fed regional bank.
Just in Time for the Holidays, CUToday’s Free Morning Headline Email is Now Double-Free!
Don’t forget to check your Spam/Junk email folder if you haven’t been receiving your free, popular and daily CUToday.info news headlines.
And if you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time.
CUToday.info has received very positive response from readers following the move to an improved provider of the daily headlines, but many also noted they did need to go to their Spam/Junk folder and mark it as safe.
The new email solution has not only improved every reader’s delivery experience, but it also features a fresh, new format that is easy to read, especially on mobile devices.
Please note and/or make your IT department or email administrator aware the emails will be coming from the domains CUTodayinfo.com and CUTodayinfoReply.com.