Absolutely. Clearly there is a danger in politicizing Federal Reserve decisions but looking at how the Fed handled the bailout of AIG and Wall Street, it's difficult to see how much worse it could have been. To date, Congress or the White House (either the current or the former) have hardly been impressive with taking control of the issue though the Federal Reserve does look like a black hole, accountable to no one. When billions are handed out with no strings, it's fair to ask questions and demand answers.
The group, led by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., wants a congressional review of the Federal Reserve system. They want to allow congressional audits of the Fed as part of financial rules being debated by the House Financial Services and Senate Banking committees, according to a letter Wednesday to the committees' chairmen.
"Real financial regulatory reform cannot occur without an examination into the structure" of the Federal Reserve system, the letter says.
Details on which banks benefited from AIG's bailout never would have become known without demands from Congress, and a recent report shows flaws in the Fed's structure as a regulator, the lawmakers wrote.
