A.G. Gancarski
Amid ongoing uncertainty about the near-term future of Jay Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, one Florida lawmaker wants to crack open the central bank’s books.
Teaming with Rand Paul of Kentucky, Naples Republican Rick Scott is sponsoring the Federal Reserve Transparency Act.
The legislation calls for the Comptroller General of the United States to complete an audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks within 12 months of the bill becoming law.
“American taxpayers deserve answers and accountability, which is why I’ve already introduced bipartisan legislation to require an independent, Senate-confirmed Inspector General at the Fed, and am proud to be leading this effort to deliver a full audit of the Fed’s books,” Scott said Friday.
Upon completion of the audit, the report would be provided to legislative leadership, to committees, and to any member who sought the work product.
Scott, a frequent critic of Powell’s tenure at the Fed, says the organization “has been plagued by ethics scandals, regulatory failures, and a complete lack of transparency” under his watch.
Earlier this week, a rumor spread that President Donald Trump sought to fire Powell, a move for which there would not be clear statutory authority. While Trump summarily denied that action was imminent, the brief period in which the move was floated as an immediate possibility spooked equity markets and led to momentary upticks in the valuations of gold and silver.
Trump has called for interest rates to be lowered and has insisted Powell has been “too late” to do so.
Also, in recent days, White House and administration officials have accused Powell of mismanaging a $2.5 billion renovation project at the Fed, adding to months of efforts by Trump try to rid himself of the politically independent central banker.
4 comments
KathrynA
July 19, 2025 at 12:29 pm
This is “rich”–the man found guilty of huge amounts of medicare fraud and grew wealthy from that and backroom deals as governor–now want the Fed investigated. Reportedly, the first Trump administration authorized all the renovations.
Larry Gillis, Director-at-Large, Libertarian Party of Florida
July 19, 2025 at 12:48 pm
SHOW-TRIALS, AS A MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUE.
Surely, there is some already-existing provision for regular audits of the Fed. That would be the prudent and business-like way to handle our money, non?
Frankly, Scott’s proposal stinks of a “show-trial” approach to management. Those have their uses, for sure (ask Joe Stalin). However, they do a lot of roiling and boiling at our expense, while achieving whatever good they achieve.
(Wait until the Democrats take back one of the Houses during the Midterms. It’ll be more of the same, only different).
Vote Libertarian. We are the Children of Light in these very dark times.
LawLib
July 19, 2025 at 2:07 pm
Nothing but a grandstander, oh yes, and toady!
MH/Duuuval
July 19, 2025 at 5:42 pm
Ten GOP Senators were successful in extricating over a billion dollars from the nearly $5 billion that Trump refused to turn loose on July 1 for summer and year-round school enrichment programs, such as those of local Boys and Girls clubs. (The money had been okayed by the Congress and was expected to be disbursed on or before July 1, but instead on July 1 some Trump cipher announced the programs had been defunded.)
Conspicuously absent from the ten GOP letter signers: Trick and Moody.