Ron Paul Poised to Finally Pass Fed Audits

For Ron Paul, it's got to be sweet. The financial regulatory reform bill that opened for debate in the House today contains Paul's amendment to subject the Fed to congressional audit—his ninth try in 11 years in office to get a Fed-curbing proposal into play. Until now, none of them has even been brought up for committee debate; this one's gone to the floor with the support of more than 300 of the lower chamber’s 435 members

“We live in the age of the people demanding more transparency, and that came out of the failure of Congress to monitor the bailouts,” Paul tells Bloomberg. “I was able to tap into that.” There’s anti-Fed sentiment brewing in the Senate too, with Chris Dodd sponsoring legislation to strip some of the Fed’s regulatory powers. But the Fed argues that Paul's proposal would subject it to political pressure, and that Dodd's would leave the system vulnerable. (More Ron Paul stories.)