WASHINGTON, D.C. – In case you missed it, Senator Rick Scott wrote an op-ed for Fox News demanding serious changes and accountability at the Federal Reserve following this month’s shocking failures of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank. In the op-ed, Senator Scott highlights his fight to protect American families and workers so that their interests always come before those of Wall Street and the old Washington establishment.

This week, Senator Scott is introducing legislation to make needed changes at the Federal Reserve and hold bad actors at the banks accountable by allowing clawbacks of bonuses and excess compensation to bank executives prior to failure. Yesterday, he sent a letter to Jerome Powell, Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, calling out the Fed’s gross mismanagement and lack of oversight of these banks and demanding significant reforms.

In the op-ed, Senator Rick Scott writes, “When a crisis occurs and it becomes clear that government is not being accountable to the American people, two things have to happen. First, you have to make changes so that the crisis never happens again, and then you have to hold anyone that failed to do the right thing fully accountable.

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I was a bit shocked when President Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen repeatedly claimed last week that the U.S. banking system is strong. Excuse me for not jumping to believe the economic opinions of the people who told us inflation was ‘only temporary’ in 2021. The people I talk to in Florida feel the same way. You can't trust anything out of the federal government right now, it's all massaged to fit their narrative.

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That’s why we need independent authorities who can investigate government and fight for the transparency and accountability our citizens deserve.

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What’s shocking is that the Federal Reserve doesn’t have this oversight.

Yes, you read that right. The Federal Reserve, the world’s largest and most powerful central bank, does not have a truly independent IG to investigate it. I’m fighting to fix that and will be introducing a bill soon – that I believe will have bipartisan support – to establish a presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed inspector general at the Fed like every other major government agency.

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If Fed Chairman Jerome Powell really cares about the American economy and serving the taxpayers, he will do three things during the Fed’s meeting this week: put his support behind this idea, tell us who at the Fed is being fired for its lack of bank oversight, and tell us what changes have been made so this never happens again. Let’s see if he’s brave enough to do it.

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Of course, forcing more accountability at the Fed is only one piece of fixing this disaster. Banks need to be held accountable too. 

The fact that executives at Silicon Valley Bank handed out bonuses, and paid themselves, when they knew they were going under is disgusting and shouldn’t be allowed. Along with my bill to install an independent IG at the Fed, I’ll be fighting to pass legislation that claws back these bonuses and any other excess compensation. We have to make sure that money is paid back to cover their losses and make innocent customers whole.

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Right now, the system is set up to benefit the old Washington-Wall Street insiders while the American people are on the hook. We saw it in 2008 when the banks got a bailout and you paid for it. Now it’s happening again.

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I say no. No more ‘free lunches’ for the banks while the American people continue to foot the bill and suffer the consequences of failures they had no fault in.

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The American people are tired of caving, tired of broken promises, and tired of paying the bill for Wall Street’s mismanagement and Washington’s failure to stand up and say enough. So am I and that’s why I won’t give up this fight.”

Read the full op-ed in Fox News HERE.

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