Politics makes strange bedfellows, the saying goes. There might not be a stranger pair than Sen. Elizabeth Warren [D-Mass.] and Sen. Rick Scott [R-Fla.], who have joined together to introduce a bill that would replace the Inspector General at the Federal Reserve with an independent Inspector General who would be responsible for overseeing the Fed and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
A copy of the bill can be accessed by clicking here.
The bill is a response to the recent failures at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, indicating that more supervision and regulation is needed in the banking industry.
“It’s outrageous that the Federal Reserve, the world’s largest and most powerful central bank, does not have a truly independent Inspector General to investigate it – an independent authority to fight for the transparency and accountability our citizens need,” Sen. Scott said in a statement. “Our legislation fixes that by establishing a presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed inspector general at the Fed, like every other major government agency. Consumers and American families must not bear the brunt of the failures of gross mismanagement and greed at their banks or the incompetence and misdeeds of the government regulators who are there to protect them.”
The Office of the Inspector General is an independent and objective oversight authority charged with conducting audits, investigations, and other reviews of the operations of the Federal Reserve Board and the CFPB.
The CFPB falls under the OIG’s purview because the Bureau receives its funding directly through the Fed.
If enacted, the new Inspector General would be appointed by the president and would need to be confirmed by the Senate.
One report hinted that the cooperation between Scott and Warren may be the start of a renewed bipartisan push to reform and overhaul the banking industry.
