Federal Reserve Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014
Latest action. Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
Federal Reserve Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 - Amends the Federal Reserve Act to require the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to consider specified economic impacts of any regulation before issuing it.
Directs the Board, in deciding whether and how to regulate, to assess the costs and benefits of regulatory alternatives, including the alternative of not regulating, and choose the approach that maximizes net benefits.
Sets forth additional considerations, including market liquidity in the securities markets and global competitiveness.
Requires the Board, whenever it adopts or amends a regulation designated as a"major rule," to make a post-adoption impact assessment, including intended and unintended consequences of the regulation.
Requires a one-week blackout period before each meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, until midnight of the day after the meeting, during which restrictions are imposed upon public communications by Board members and staff, with specified exceptions, regarding macroeconomic or financial developments or current or prospective monetary policy issues.
Applies to Board members and staff the ethics standards that apply to Securities and Exchange commission (SEC) employees with respect to financial interests and transactions. Prescribes requirements for disclosure of brokerage accounts.
Directs the Board to make publicly available on its website staff salaries and financial information.
Directs the Comptroller General (GAO) to study the employee pay and pay scale used by the Board.
Requires the Vice Chairman for Supervision to testify to Congress on the status of all pending and anticipated Board rulemakings.
Revises requirements for Board communications with Congress.
Amends the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to require the Board to: (1) issue regulations for nonbank financial company stress test conditions, and (2) disclose and update publicly the aggregate number of supervisory letters sent to bank holding companies.
Requires the Board to: (1) submit audits and performance reviews to certain congressional committees, and (2) designate as chairman of the board of directors of the Federal reserve bank and as Federal reserve agent one of either class A or class B directors with tested banking experience.
The summary continues for 7 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on January 27, 2014. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on January 27, 2014: Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 113th Congress (2013-14), 296 of the 9,091 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.3 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Scott Garrett (R-NJ) introduced it on January 27, 2014. No cosponsors are recorded.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on January 27, 2014, 4609 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 4609 days ago, on January 27, 2014.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 113th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2015 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers