Scott Garrett: Audit the Fed and Rein in TSA

One of the representatives who cosponsored Audit the Fed this week, thus helping us once again get a majority of the House on the bill, is Representative Scott Garrett (NJ-05), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises of the House Committee on Financial Services. This is the third Congress in a row that Representative Garret has cosponsored Audit the Fed.  

In addition to supporting H.R. 24, Representative Garrett has introduced the Federal Reserve Accountability and Transparency Act (H.R. 3839). H.R. 3829 is aimed at making the Federal Reserve’s regulatory process more transparent by, among other provisions, requiring the Fed’s Director of Supervision to testify before Congress whenever the Fed issues a major rule. The bill also requires the Fed to post information about staff salaries on the Internet, applies Federal conflict of interest rules to Fed regulators, and instructs the Fed to do a cost-benefit analyses before issuing a new regulation. It also instructs the Fed to consider whether the country would be better off with no regulation.

Since H.R. 3839 only relates to the Fed’s role as a financial regulator, not it’s role in monetary policy, it in no way conflicts with oversight called for in Audit the Fed. In fact, the two bills are in many ways complementary.

Representative Garrett has also stood up for the civil liberties of Americans who travel by train, bus, and subway by introducing the Freedom to Travel Act (H.R. 2589). This legislation ends the Transportation Security Agency’s “VIPR” program. VIPR (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response), is the TSA’s attempt to make other forms of travel as unpleasant as air travel. VIPR is even operating in some local bus stops. Hopefully Congress will pass this bill this year before no American can take their local bus or train without being subject to TSA harassment. Put a stop to the TSA’s mission creep outside of America’s airports by urging your representative to cosponsor this important legislation.