Rubio Campaign Press Release - READ: Marco Rubio Explains Why We Ought to Be Able to Audit the Fed

January 12, 2016

Statement from Marco Rubio

Throughout my campaign, I have met countless people across the country concerned with the secrecy and lack of accountability of the Federal Reserve. I am proud to support a bill, just like I have every year since joining the Senate, that would require an audit of the Fed and allow Congress to examine its activities like they do other government institutions.

Especially since the financial crisis, the Fed has taken an outsized role in the American economy, purchasing over $4 trillion in bonds, mortgage-backed securities, and other assets. Its balance sheet is now larger than the GDP of Germany.

This overreach has created an unhealthy, Fed-centric economy that leaves businesses and investors hanging on the arbitrary, unpredictable decisions of a few central bankers. Unwinding the current situation, as everyone knows is necessary, will come with even more new risks.

The Fed should never be a substitute for the sound regulatory, fiscal, and tax policies that America desperately needs. Instead of eliminating harmful regulations and enacting pro-growth pro-family tax reform, both of which would stimulate healthy and lasting growth, the Obama Administration has been able to use the Fed's policies as a crutch — one we lean on with more weight now than ever before. Instead of holding the Fed accountable for its mistakes, the Obama Administration gave the Fed even more power with the disastrous Dodd-Frank law.

It's time the American people have a chance to hold the Fed accountable. Giving Congress the ability to audit its work is a commonsense first step.