Senate Accepts Expanded Fed Audit

The Senate will accept an expanded Federal Reserve audit proposal from the House as part of Wall Street conference committee deliberations, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) told the panel Wednesday evening.

The House proposal allows repeated future audits of discount window and open market transactions, whereas the Senate proposal had only allowed a one-time audit.

The Senate's provision had already been stronger than what the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department had previously been willing to accept.

The details of the final proposal are still being worked out, but momentum is with advocates of Federal Reserve transparency. Depending on the specific language, however, Fed critics are worried the House proposal will still allow the Fed to keep information secret by keeping certain operations ongoing.