WASHINGTON, D.C. – In case you missed it, today, Reuters published an article highlighting Senators Rick Scott and Elizabeth Warren’s bipartisan letter to Mark Bialek, Inspector General of the Federal Reserve, voicing concerns of alleged conflicts of interest he faces in his role as a top-paid watchdog at the central bank.

Reporting for Reuters, David Morgan and Costas Pitas write, “Republican Senator Rick Scott and Democrat Elizabeth Warren have asked for salary information from the Fed's Inspector General, who serves as the central bank's watchdog, as they criticized the current system amid a push to make the role independent...

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Some in Congress are concerned that the Federal Reserve's current inspector general is not independent enough to serve as a check on the central bank. Unlike the Pentagon and other big agencies, the Fed's internal IG, currently Mark Bialek, reports directly to the Fed board. Under the Senators' plans, the holder of the role would instead be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Among their concerns with the current system, the Senators wrote in the letter, is that the IG's compensation is now structured in such a way to create potential conflicts of interest. Specifically, they objected to having the IG's salary tied to the compensation of Fed officials who the IG is tasked with investigating.

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They detailed five questions in their letter, including what salary Bialek had received over the last five full calendar years, what percentage of his salary was based on the average bonus component of the pay formula and whether he had conducted any inspections in connection with bonuses at the Fed in the last five years…”

Read the full letter HERE and the article in Reuters HERE.

MORE… Sen. Rick Scott Introduces Legislative Package to Hold Federal Reserve Accountable

In July, Senator Scott introduced a legislative package aimed at forcing accountability on the Federal Reserve, ending its bad practices that have cost Americans more than $1 trillion, and reining in the agency’s out-of-control, $8.3 TRILLION balance sheet. This package includes: the Regular Order for Investments (ROI) of the Federal Reserve Act to end the Fed’s bad practices and force the Fed to consider the impact of its decisions on hard-working American families so this never happens again; the Right-Size the Federal Reserve Act to ensure an unwinding of the Fed’s massive balance sheet by mandating that it remain at or below 10% of U.S. GDP; and the Rein in the Federal Reserve Act to interject much-needed scrutiny and accountability of the Fed’s actions by establishing a statutory process for more strict oversight by Congress.

Additionally, in May, Senators Scott and Warren introduced the Strengthening Federal Reserve System Accountability Act, to improve the governance of the Federal Reserve System and make the Fed more transparent and accountable. The senators’ new legislation would prohibit executives from large banks from serving on Reserve Bank boards of directors, require the Board of Governors and Reserve Banks to disclose more information about the Reserve Bank president and director selection processes, and subject Reserve Bank directors to ethics and financial conflict of interest rules.

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