II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 573 To require a full audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks by the Comptroller General of the United States, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MARCH 3, 2021 Mr. PAUL (for himself, Mr. YOUNG, Mr. BARRASSO, Mr. BLUNT, Mr. BOOZ- MAN, Mr. PORTMAN, Mr. LANKFORD, and Mr. LEE) introduced the fol- lowing bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Bank- ing, Housing, and Urban Affairs A BILL To require a full audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks by the Comptroller General of the United States, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Reserve 4 Transparency Act of 2021’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:40 Apr 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S573.IS S573 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 573 IS SEC. 2. AUDIT REFORM AND TRANSPARENCY FOR THE 1 BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RE- 2 SERVE SYSTEM. 3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding section 714 of 4 title 31, United States Code, or any other provision of law, 5 the Comptroller General of the United States shall com- 6 plete an audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal 7 Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks under sub- 8 section (b) of that section not later than 12 months after 9 the date of the enactment of this Act. 10 (b) REPORT.— 11 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 12 the date on which the audit required pursuant to 13 subsection (a) is completed, the Comptroller Gen- 14 eral— 15 (A) shall submit to Congress a report on 16 the audit; and 17 (B) shall make the report described in sub- 18 paragraph (A) available to the Speaker of the 19 House, the majority and minority leaders of the 20 House of Representatives, the majority and mi- 21 nority leaders of the Senate, the Chairman and 22 Ranking Member of the committee and each 23 subcommittee of jurisdiction in the House of 24 Representatives and the Senate, and any other 25 Member of Congress who requests the report. 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:40 Apr 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S573.IS S573 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 573 IS (2) CONTENTS.—The report required under 1 paragraph (1) shall include a detailed description of 2 the findings and conclusion of the Comptroller Gen- 3 eral with respect to the audit that is the subject of 4 the report, together with such recommendations for 5 legislative or administrative action as the Comp- 6 troller General may determine to be appropriate. 7 (c) REPEAL OF CERTAIN LIMITATIONS.—Subsection 8 (b) of section 714 of title 31, United States Code, is 9 amended by striking the second sentence. 10 (d) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 11 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 714 of title 31, 12 United States Code, is amended— 13 (A) in subsection (d)(3), by striking ‘‘or 14 (f)’’ each place the term appears; 15 (B) in subsection (e), by striking ‘‘the 16 third undesignated paragraph of section 13’’ 17 and inserting ‘‘section 13(3)’’; and 18 (C) by striking subsection (f). 19 (2) FEDERAL RESERVE ACT.—Subsection (s) 20 (relating to ‘‘Federal Reserve Transparency and Re- 21 lease of Information’’) of section 11 of the Federal 22 Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 248) is amended— 23 (A) in paragraph (4)(A), by striking ‘‘has 24 the same meaning as in section 714(f)(1)(A) of 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:40 Apr 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S573.IS S573 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 573 IS title 31, United States Code’’ and inserting 1 ‘‘means a program or facility, including any 2 special purpose vehicle or other entity estab- 3 lished by or on behalf of the Board of Gov- 4 ernors of the Federal Reserve System or a Fed- 5 eral reserve bank, authorized by the Board of 6 Governors under section 13(3), that is not sub- 7 ject to audit under section 714(e) of title 31, 8 United States Code’’; 9 (B) in paragraph (6), by striking ‘‘or in 10 section 714(f)(3)(C) of title 31, United States 11 Code, the information described in paragraph 12 (1) and information concerning the transactions 13 described in section 714(f) of such title,’’ and 14 inserting ‘‘the information described in para- 15 graph (1)’’; and 16 (C) in paragraph (7), by striking ‘‘and sec- 17 tion 13(3)(C), section 714(f)(3)(C) of title 31, 18 United States Code, and’’ and inserting ‘‘, sec- 19 tion 13(3)(C), and’’. 20 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:40 Apr 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S573.IS S573 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS