Bipartisan Revolt Passes Bill in House Finance Committee to Audit the Secretive Federal Reserve: Where did our money go?

Friday, Nov 20, 2009 04:21 PST

The Washington establishment suffers a serious defeat

By Glenn Greenwald

Something quite amazing happened yesterday in Congress:  the House Finance Committee — in a truly bipartisan and even trans-ideological vote — defied the banking industry, the Federal Reserve, the Democratic leadership, and mainstream Beltway opinion in order to pass an amendment, sponsored by GOP Rep. Ron Paul and Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson, mandating a genuine and probing audit of the Fed.  The Huffington Post‘s Ryan Grim has the best account of what took place, noting:  

In an unprecedented defeat for the Federal Reserve, an amendment to audit the multi-trillion dollar institution was approved by the House Finance Committee with an overwhelming and bipartisan 43-26 vote on Thursday afternoon despite harried last-minute lobbying from top Fed officials and the surprise opposition of Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who had previously been a supporter.

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Disappointed Altmire Supporters Meet to Discuss Alternatives

by Randy Shannon

November 22, 2009

A group of twenty-seven Democratic Party activists met on Saturday morning at the Shaler Township library to discuss their shared disappointment with 4th CD Blue Dog Congressman Jason Altmire. Activists attended the November 21st meeting from Sewickley, Murrysville, Avalon, Ohio Township, Indiana Township, Fox Chapel, Hampton, Ross, Westview, Shaler, McCandless, Franklin Park, and Plum.

Ms. Terry Hartnett of Avalon Borough, and a Democratic Committee member, started the meeting with a welcome and briefly described a smaller previous meeting at which activists discussed the possibility of running a progressive against Altmire in the upcoming primary election.

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