Legislation: S. 209 - Audit the Fed - 32 Cosponsors [12/10 Update +1]

tsai3904

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S. 209

Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2013

Sponsor: Paul, Rand [KY] (introduced 2/4/2013)

Cosponsors (32)

Sen Ayotte, Kelly [NH] - 2/4/2013
Sen Barrasso, John [WY] - 2/4/2013
Sen Begich, Mark [AK] - 2/4/2013
Sen Boozman, John [AR] - 2/4/2013
Sen Burr, Richard [NC] - 2/4/2013
Sen Chambliss, Saxby [GA] - 2/4/2013
Sen Coburn, Tom [OK] - 2/4/2013
Sen Cochran, Thad [MS] - 5/21/2014
Sen Collins, Susan M. [ME] - 2/11/2013
Sen Cornyn, John [TX] - 2/4/2013
Sen Crapo, Mike [ID] - 3/4/2013
Sen Cruz, Ted [TX] - 2/4/2013
Sen Enzi, Michael B. [WY] - 2/4/2013
Sen Graham, Lindsey [SC] - 1/7/2014
Sen Grassley, Chuck [IA] - 2/4/2013
Sen Hatch, Orrin G. [UT] - 2/7/2013
Sen Heller, Dean [NV] - 2/4/2013
Sen Isakson, Johnny [GA] - 9/18/2014
Sen Kirk, Mark Steven [IL] - 12/9/2014
Sen Lee, Mike [UT] - 2/4/2013
Sen McConnell, Mitch [KY] - 2/7/2013
Sen Moran, Jerry [KS] - 12/11/2013
Sen Murkowski, Lisa [AK] - 9/10/2013
Sen Portman, Rob [OH] - 10/29/2013
Sen Risch, James E. [ID] - 2/4/2013
Sen Roberts, Pat [KS] - 2/4/2013
Sen Rubio, Marco [FL] - 2/4/2013
Sen Scott, Tim [SC] - 10/31/2013
Sen Sessions, Jeff [AL] - 2/25/2013
Sen Thune, John [SD] - 2/7/2013
Sen Toomey, Pat [PA] - 2/4/2013
Sen Vitter, David [LA] - 2/4/2013

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Cosponsored S. 202 in 112th Congress but have not yet cosponsored S. 209 (5):

Sen Blunt, Roy [MO]
Sen Inhofe, James M. [OK]
Sen McCain, John [AZ]
Sen Shelby, Richard C. [AL]
Sen Wicker, Roger F. [MS]

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Voted for or supported H.R. 459 in 2012 while a member of the House but have not yet cosponsored S. 209 (6):

Sen Baldwin, Tammy [WI]
Sen Donnelly, Joe [IN]
Sen Flake, Jeff [AZ]
Sen Heinrich, Martin [NM]
Sen Hirono, Mazie K. [HI]
Sen Murphy, Christopher S. [CT]

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Remaining Republican Senators who have not yet cosponsored S. 209 (7):

Sen Alexander, Lamar [TN]
Sen Coats, Daniel [IN]
Sen Corker, Bob [TN]
Sen Fischer, Deb [NE]
Sen Hoeven, John [ND]
Sen Johanns, Mike [NE]
Sen Johnson, Ron [WI]

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Find contact information for your Senators here:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

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Link to H.R. 24, the House Audit the Fed bill:

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?403907-H-R-24-Audit-the-Fed-132-Cosponsors-3-1-Update-6
 
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Three new cosponsors yesterday:

Sen Hatch, Orrin G. [UT] - 2/7/2013
Sen McConnell, Mitch [KY] - 2/7/2013
Sen Thune, John [SD] - 2/7/2013

McConnell signing on is huge news. He refused to do so last two years and signals that if Republicans ever gain control of Senate, he will push this through.
 
Rob Portman - OH - Say's he would only support a one time Audit
Sherrod Brown - OH - Doesn't seem to support it at all
 
LOL! You updated this just as I was going to post it!

Liberty News ‏@LbrtyNews
S 209, #AuditTheFed, picked up a cosponsor yesterday. Thanks @senatorsessions! Now up to 23 total cosponsors.
 
Portman cosponsored the bill last year so it shouldn't take too many calls and emails to get him to cosponsor again in this Congress.

I've called and emailed him a bunch. He keeps saying that he believe that the Fed might be a problem but he doesn't think full transparency is the way to go. We need not bother them, we will make the situation worse. He says we need to start with a 1x audit.
 
Mazie Hirono [HI], who was a member of the House in 2012 and is now a Senator, did not cosponsor nor was she present during the vote of HR 459 in 2012 so we are unsure of where she stands.

However, I just found this in the Congressional Record. She submitted these remarks the day before the vote of HR 459.

SPEECH OF
HON. MAZIE K. HIRONO
OF HAWAII
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
TUESDAY, JULY 24, 2012​

Ms. HIRONO. Mr. Speaker, I believe that transparency in the activities of government is extremely important and that we should endeavor to let in more sunlight, not less. Therefore, I am proud to support H.R. 459, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act.

The financial crisis of 2007-2008 cost nearly $6.5 trillion in household wealth. That's home equity and savings for retirement and college that millions of people will likely never get back. Between December 2007 and early 2010 8.7 million jobs were lost--Including a record-breaking 779,000 in January of 2009 alone.

I raise these frightening numbers to illustrate a point--the impact of the financial crisis was disastrous, widespread, and occurred very quickly.

As a result, unprecedented steps were taken to halt the disastrous decline in our economy. These included the Federal Reserve (the Fed) stretching its emergency lending authority farther than it ever had to before. This, along with the legislative actions of Congress and the efforts of the Bush and Obama Administrations, helped to prevent the ``Great Recession'' from instead becoming ``The Great Depression Redux.''

The Obama Administration and Congress have worked to rebuild our economy. Over 4.4 million jobs have been created over the past 28 consecutive months. The American automobile industry has been saved and is prospering. Communities across the nation benefitted from investments in transportation, energy, and other vital areas from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Fed has also contributed to this effort by keeping interest rates low and other measures.

But progress has not been fast enough. We are all frustrated by the current state of affairs. We are also rightly frustrated at the conduct of banks and bankers--private sector bankers and central bankers alike.

I recognize that the actions of the Fed are subject to Congressional oversight and audits by the Government Accountability Office. I was proud to support the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which included needed reforms of the Fed's emergency lending authority, and required that the Government Accountability Office conduct an audit of the Fed's emergency lending programs.

These are much needed steps. While I don't share the view that we should abolish the Fed, or that the Fed's activities are necessarily malicious, I do believe that the American people have a right to know how decisions about interest rates and other policies that impact their day-to-day lives are made.

The recent revelations that major international banks colluded to set the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR), which is an influential global interest rate, indicate that it is in the public interest to more closely scrutinize the activities of both financial market players as well as those that are supposed to be the unbiased referees like the Fed.

Today's bill is a positive step toward doing that and I am proud to support H.R. 459.

This makes five current Democratic Senators who supported HR 459 in the House in 2012.
 
Senator "Bailout Bob" Corker will NOT vote for a full audit:















_______
SOURCE: http://tncampaignforliberty.org/wordpress/2012/07/bob-corker-a-puppet-of-the-federal-reserve/

Critics took aim at Republican Sen. Bob Corker last month after he called for a hearing to investigate more than $2 billion in trading losses at JPMorgan, then used the occasion to heap praise on CEO Jamie Dimon.

Corker called Dimon “one of the best CEOs in the country for financial institutions” and deemed the losses, which the New York Times reported last week could total as much as $9 billion, a “blip on the radar screen.”...JPMorgan has contributed more to Corker’s campaign than all but two other organizations, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The senator, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, has received $10,000 from the company’s political action committee and $54,000 from individuals who work for the bank.

His No. 1 contributor is Goldman Sachs
, whose employees have given $71,700.
...Corker’s Republican challengers say the senator’s financial ties to large corporations partly explain why his voting record isn’t as conservative as they think it should be.They point to vote ratings by the conservative group Heritage Action for America, which said Corker voted conservatively only 74 percent of the time, and by the nonpartisan Congressional Quarterly, which found Corker voted with President Barack Obama’s position 61 percent of the time last year.“Just look to see who’s contributing to his campaign,” said Zach Poskevich, a tea party-backed Republican from Hendersonville.

He said that might explain why Corker voted for the 2008 bank bailout and for the 2009 Cash for Clunkers program that offered consumers rebates to trade in gas-guzzlers for more fuel-efficient cars.
...Corker said Dodd-Frank went too far and has created uncertainty among businesses, but he thinks there is a role for government in regulating financial institutions and markets.“What’s happened is that the administration has responded (to the financial crisis) by trying to put a regulator in the seat of every banker,” he said. “What we really need to be doing is regulating the markets.”...“Nobody’s been more active in focusing on fiscal solvency than me,” he said.His Republican opponents disagree, saying Corker should have voted against raising the nation’s debt limit last summer.

Corker has defended his vote for a debt compromise by pointing out that the deal promised to cut deficits by more than $2 trillion over 10 years.
 
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