A key House panel on Thursday attached to a broad financial overhaul bill language that would give federal watchdogs new authority to audit the Federal Reserve.
The House Financial Services Committee's 43-26 vote on the Fed auditing amendment, introduced by Rep. Ron Paul (R., Texas), concluded weeks of debate on a bill to create a new council of regulators to wind down large institutions that pose a risk to the economy. The committee has postponed a final vote on the bill until after the Thanksgiving holiday. The amendment was cosponsored by Rep. Alan Grayson (D., Fla.).
For more than 20 years, Paul has championed significantly neutering the Fed. His amendment removes restrictions on the Government Accountability Office's auditing authority, giving it access to every item on the Fed's balance sheet.
Paul's amendment would allow 180 days to pass before auditors could release Fed records relating to individual market actions. It also contains exemptions for unreleased transcripts and minutes of private Fed meetings in order to address concerns that the bill could interfere with the Fed's independence in setting monetary policy.
Paul is among several lawmakers who said they believe the underlying bill grants too much new authority to the Fed. "At least with this amendment attached, it won't be acting in secret anymore," Paul said in a statement. "This is a major victory for Federal Reserve transparency and government accountability."
The committee's approval of Paul's amendment, despite opposition from Chairman Barney Frank (D., Mass.), isn't expected to derail final passage of the bill. The bill also won't change between now and the final committee vote, according to Frank.
"I do think you are going to see some kind of concern over the Paul amendment," Frank told reporters. "I think it is going to be seen as weakening the independence of monetary policy with consequent negative implications."
Frank said the Fed proposal may be "revisited" when the full House debates the bill in December. Still, Paul has more than 300 House cosponsors for a separate bill he has introduced to audit the Fed.
Paul's amendment faces a more uncertain road in the Senate, though it does enjoy some meaningful support in that chamber, and approval of similar language isn't out of the question as senators work through their version of regulatory overhaul legislation.
Frank said members of the Congressional Black Caucus will be in talks with the administration over the Thanksgiving break before there is a final committee vote in order to resolve their concerns about the economic situation facing their constituents. "The issues being addressed are not internal to this bill but affect the broader economic situation," Frank said.
In a statement, the senior Black Caucus member on the committee, Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) said: "The recession has created a unique systemic risk that threatens all parts of the African-American community, including the poor and the middle class. I have always committed to addressing that risk and will continue to do so."
Frank said the actions of the Congressional Black Caucus preserve its ability to negotiate with the administration over the next week and a half on how the administration will handle its new authority when the financial overhaul becomes law.
The proposal to deal with systemic risks is a critical part of the administration's financial plan. It also may be the most difficult because of the competing agendas of regulators and policymakers' desire to use a deft touch with still-shaky financial institutions.
The new regulatory council would be headed by the U.S. Treasury secretary. Also having votes would be the federal banking regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the National Credit Union Administration.
Committee members grappled with difficult issues in the weeks-long consideration of the bill. They voted 41-28 on an amendment allowing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to establish a special pool of funding to help dissolve large, troubled institutions.
Money for the fund would be collected through risk-based assessments on firms holding assets of $50 billion or more. Regulators would have the authority to assess payments on hedge funds with $10 billion or more in assets.
The dissolution fund would be capped at $200 billion.
Earlier, the committee narrowly approved an amendment allowing the government to break up large, risky firms. Under that language, the council can determine whether the size, concentration or interconnectedness of an individual firm "poses a grave threat to the United States." If the council reaches that conclusion, a company could face limits on its business practices, or be required to sell or divest business units.
How to deal with large, financial firms is a core question for policymakers hoping to address the problems exposed during last year's financial crisis. The structure envisioned by the administration and many congressional Democrats would allow the government new latitude to deal with large financial firms that run into trouble. The House bill would allow the government to act preemptively before a firm falters.
The overall measure is expected to be debated by the full House sometime in December. It could be combined with other rewrites of financial regulations that have passed the committee in recent weeks.
-By Fawn Johnson, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9263; fawn.johnson@dowjones.com
(Michael R. Crittenden contributed to this article.)