Fed Privately Lobbying Against Audit, Documents Show

The Huffington Post | May 5, 2010
By Ryan Grim

The Federal Reserve is privately lobbying against a bipartisan Senate amendment that would open the central bank to an audit by the Government Accountability Office, according to documents distributed to Senate offices by a Fed official.

The effort to beat back the audit relies on playing two members of the same caucus -- Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) -- off each other.

In order to obtain the documents, HuffPost agreed not to reveal the name of the Federal Reserve official who did the specific lobbying in question. Fed officials, including Chairman Ben Bernanke, have made public statements against requiring disclosure and members of the Senate and their aides have talked about Fed lobbying in general, but the documents reveal a very specific hand-to-hand style of combat being engaged in as the vote on the amendment draws near.

Full article here