The bill to audit the Federal Reserve now has a veto-proof majority

[FLAprogressive]

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-1207

My question is: Why hasn't this been put to a vote?

[Vincardog]

1. Because it has a veto-proof majority and the government is in the Rich people protection racket

What? You thought they worked for YOU?
:silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly:

[Raster]

6. Boy, did you hit the nail on the head!

Government of the people, for the people and by the people is as much of a fairytale as is Cinderella. You and I may elect the members of Government, but they owe their allegiance to higher powers--corporate-controlled higher powers. Case-in-point: the asinine debate of reforming healthcare. We actually have an opportunity--though it's slipping further away every day--to create a system that is cheaper, more efficient, covers all citizens and in a word: WORKS! But big corporate-controlled interests are doing everything possible to scuttle much-needed reform. And the kick-in-the-pants is that MOST OF CONGRESS are accomplices and collaborators, actively putting the interests of the "for profit" vampires ahead of the citizens.

[Vincardog]

10. Witch is why we have to force them

[stray cat]

2. maybe because they are trying to make it a good bill and it can be made better?

[Trillo]

4. If it has 290 cosponsors as it is,

then why does it need to be made "better" by a small subset of committee Representatives?

It seems that for 290 Representatives it is good enough as it is.

[TxRider]

3. Good question.

[slipslidingaway]

5. knr nt

[tritsofme]

7. It will either follow normal legislative procedure, or they must file a discharge petition.

It is an option while distasteful to Leadership they certainly retain.

[Greyhound]

8. It will be interesting to see how long the "leadership" can keep holding this up. K&R. n/t

[KharmaTrain]

9. Will It Pass The Senate?

So many good bills have passed the House only to die waiting for the Senate to get around to them. Things are better now than they were in the past 2 years, but the backlog of bills are big and the priorities are now on healthcare and the budget. While this bill has plenty of sponsors in the House, if it doesn't get the same love in the Senate it'll die in committee...or a Senator with a bug up his ass can put a hold and keep it from coming to a vote for long periods of time. Many times a bill won't move in the House unless there's a pretty good chance of it passing in the Senate as well.

[FLAprogressive]

11. The senate companion, the "Federal Reserve Sunshine Act", has 26 cosponsors

including Boxer, Feingold, Sanders , Harkin, Dorgan, and Webb.

[Selatius]

12. But you only need one Democratic senator, like Ben Nelson, to peel away to get a filibuster.

Because you know some Republican is going to attempt to filibuster the bill when it comes to the floor for a vote.

[TxRider]

13. You would think many Repubs would back this

The fed is so often deeply embedded in their anti government rhetoric.

[HamdenRice]

14. I suspect they want an audit eventually, and a system of ongoing audits, but not right now

If you follow closely exactly what the Fed has been doing over the past year, it was quite risky, but it seems to have worked. When banks stopped lending to each other, the Fed became a kind of super wholesale bank. Bernanke's gamble worked.

Problem is that at the height of the crisis, the Fed was operating somewhat like a giant hedge fund. It took on enormous risk by borrowing trillions in order to lend trillions. If the global financial markets had known the full extent of the Fed's leverage, there might have been a loss of confidence and a further economic collapse.

In the last several months, the Fed has "wound down" trillions in leverage to a much safer, more normal position.

I suspect the Senate wants the Fed audited and has a long term goal of continuous audits, but I don't think anyone wants the full extent of the Fed's leverage known until it has wound down more.