Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chair. the amendment would. at best. duplicate the Federal Reserves current policy regarding the disclosure of transcripts and. at worst. falsely imply that the Federal Reserve would be prohibited from exercising its discretion in determining when to release FOMC meeting transcripts in accordance with prudent monetary policy. After all. communication in and of itself is a key monetary policy tool. and it would be unwise to tie the Feds hands when it comes to using it. Furthermore. any failure to allow the Federal Reserve to strike the appropriate balance between transparency and the disclosure of potentially marketmoving information. particularly at a time of financial stress. would have significant adverse impacts on our economy and could. in turn. have a chilling effect on monetary policy deliberations. To underscore the fact that this potentially harmful amendment is completely unnecessary. I think it is also worth pointing out that the Federal Reserve is already a leader among central banks in advanced economies when it comes to making its transcripts available to the public. While the Federal Reserve releases transcripts with a 5year lag. other advanced economies have adopted requirements to release transcripts after much longer periods. Japans Central Bank releases transcripts to the public after 10 years. and the European Union releases transcripts after 20 years. In addition to releasing transcripts to the public. the Federal Reserve employs a range of additional measures to enhance the publics understanding of the Federal Open Market Committees views and expectations. For example. the Federal Reserve issues a statement following the conclusion of each of its meetings that includes the Federal Reserves policy decisions and its rationale. includes the vote of each FOMC member. and provides a short summary of any dissenting views. The Federal Reserve also releases detailed minutes that are released on a 3week lag following each FOMC meeting. The minutes contain a detailed discussion of the policy deliberations and the range of views that were presented and includes votes on each policy action taken by each FOMC member. Since 2011. the Chair of the Federal Reserve gives a press conference following each FOMC meeting for which a summary of economic projections is prepared. amounting to four press conferences each year. This provides the opportunity for the Chair to explain her views and respond to questions from the financial press. In January 2012. the Federal Open Market Committee also published a statement of longerrun goals and monetary policy strategy in which it outlined how it would assess its compliance with statutory mandates to promote full employment and price stability. Subsequently. in September 2014. the Federal Reserve published a statement outlining its policy. normalization principles. and plans. Finally. the Federal Reserve. as it is required by law. regularly testifies before the House and Senate on monetary policy matters on no less than two occasions a year. Chairman Yellen has made herself available to testify on regulatory matters at the request of Congress. So. all of this is to say that claims that the Federal Reserve lacks transparency or doesnt communicate its thinking to the public just dont hold up to the facts. I urge Members to oppose this amendment. Mr. Chairman. I reserve the balance of my time.