S.Amdt. 800

1. Adds SEC. __. SENSE OF THE SENATE TO INCREASE TRANSPARENCY OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM wherever appropriate

   Adds a section

   Inserted: SEC. __. SENSE OF THE SENATE TO INCREASE TRANSPARENCY OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM.

   Inserted: (a) Findings.--The Senate finds that--

   Inserted: (1) on January 28, 2009, Doug Elmendorf, the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, provided testimony to the Committee on the Budget of the Senate, that the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (in this section referred to as the "Board") has committed nearly $2,300,000,000,000, more than 3 times the cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, to programs it created to deal with the financial crisis, with the potential for such taxpayer assistance to grow to at least $4,500,000,000,000;

   Inserted: (2) on March 7, 2009, Bloomberg News reported that "Government loans, spending or guarantees to rescue the country's financial system total more than $11.7 trillion since the international credit crisis began in August 2007.";

   Inserted: (3) unlike the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the American public does not know the names of the recipients of more than $2,200,000,000,000 in taxpayer assistance provided by the Board since the beginning of the current United States financial crisis;

   Inserted: (4) while Congress has spent numerous hours of debate on the merits of Federal investments totaling less than $1,000,000,000, not one significant debate has been held on the floor of the Senate or the House of Representatives in Congress on whether the Board should be exposing American taxpayers to more than $2,200,000,000,000 in risk;

   Inserted: (5) on March 3, 2009, Chairman of the Board, Ben Bernanke, told the Committee on the Budget of the Senate that since the start of the financial crisis, the Board had provided assistance to "hundreds and hundreds of banks," but would not name the banks, how much assistance they have received, what they are doing with the taxpayer assistance, or what the specific terms of the assistance were;

   Inserted: (6) the American people have a right to know to whom the Board is lending over $2,200,000,000,000 taxpayer dollars, how much they are receiving, and what the Board is asking in return for such money;

   Inserted: (7) since the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913, there has not been a single, comprehensive independent audit of the Federal Reserve System or the Federal Reserve banks; and

   Inserted: (8) during the worst financial crisis in our nation's history since the Great Depression, a crisis which has led to the largest taxpayer bailout ever, the Board has a responsibility to the American people to explain what they are doing with their hard-earned taxpayer dollars.

   Inserted: (b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate that--

   Inserted: (1) the Comptroller General of the United States should be provided with the resources and authority necessary to conduct a comprehensive audit of the Board and the Federal reserve banks; and

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   Inserted: (2) the Board should publish on its website, with respect to all lending and financial assistance facilities it has created to address the financial crisis since March 24, 2008--

   Inserted: (A) the identity of each business, individual, or entity to which the Board has provided such assistance;

   Inserted: (B) the type of financial assistance provided to that business, individual, or entity;

   Inserted: (C) the value or amount of that financial assistance;

   Inserted: (D) the date on which the financial assistance was provided;

   Inserted: (E) the specific terms of any repayment expected, including the repayment time period, interest charges, collateral, limitations on executive compensation or dividends, and other material terms;

   Inserted: (F) the specific rationale for providing assistance in each instance; and

   Inserted: (G) what that business, individual, or entity is doing with such financial assistance.

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   Original wording

   At the appropriate place, insert the following:

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As printed