What is the Federal Reserve Hiding? RI’s Senators Can Help Find Out

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Peter Asen, MINDSETTER™

This week, Congress is debating how to respond to the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression. On most parts, there's the usual progressive-conservative split: progressives want stronger oversight of the big banks that got us into this mess, and the right wing is working to protect the institutions that got us into this mess, and required trillions of taxpayer dollars to bail out. But there's one issue that's so simple, and so common sense, that it has cut across the usual left-right divide: taking action to figure out where all the money went.

Incredibly, we still don't know where it went. We know that the powerful and secretive Federal Reserve handed out trillions of dollars to big banks -- both here and abroad -- in clandestine backroom deals, but the Federal Reserve has steadfastly refused to tell Congress who got the cash.

"Where is the money?" asked Sen. Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont, at a hearing last year. The Fed chairman refused to answer. So Sen. Sanders introduced an amendment requiring a full, independent audit of the Fed.

A grassroots petition at www.NoMoreLooting.com in favor of the Sanders amendment has already received over 12,000 signers -- and over 1,500 of those signers have called their senator in support. It's making a big difference. Already, an impressive array of senators have signed on -- from stalwart progressives like Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Russell Feingold of Wisconsin to conservatives like John McCain of Arizona and Jim DeMint of Arizona. And in the House, the amendment passed thanks to the unlikely duo of left-wing Democrat Alan Grayson of Florida and libertarian Republican Ron Paul of Texas.

But fighting bank against this bipartisan coalition are the so-called "centrists" -- more accurately called "corporatists" -- who decide how to vote based on their campaign contributions instead of their constituents. The banks are staging an all-out assault on these swing senators in a last-ditch attempt to kill the amendment -- which could be voted on as soon as today. They're trying every trick in the book -- including creating a decoy amendment that pretends to audit the Fed but keeps all of the important information secret.

Rhode Island's two senators, Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, who have been very strong consumer advocates throughout the financial reform legislative process, will be key votes on this proposal. Neither senator has publicly come out with a position on the Sanders Amendment. The key to passing this amendment, and a strong financial reform bill more generally that overcomes the furious lobbying of the banks, is to make sure that our Senators and those throughout the country hear from their constituents about how important holding Wall Street accountable. You can make your voice heard by signing the petition and contacting our senators at NoMoreLooting.com.

Peter Asen is the Director of Ocean State Action (www.OceanStateAction.org), a coalition of community organizations and unions fighting together for social and economic justice. He can be reached at [email protected].

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