WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen came under fire Wednesday from House Republicans, who challenged the central bank’s lack of accountability during her second day of testimony to Congress.
After she gave her semiannual economic report, GOP lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee grilled Yellen with a basket of complaints.
They questioned her opposition to GOP legislation that would expand the ability of Congress to audit the Fed’s operations. They accused her of being unduly influenced by Democrats. Rep. Sean Duffy, a Republican from Wisconsin, criticized Yellen for giving a major speech on income inequality in the midst of last fall’s congressional campaigns — just as Democrats were trying to make a major issue of income inequality.
Rep. Scott Garrett, a Republican from New Jersey, said a review of her meeting calendars painted a “pretty damning picture that the Fed is immersed and guided by partisan politics.”
Yellen, nominated by President Barack Obama, rejected those suggestions and staunchly defended the Fed’s independence.
“We meet with a wide range of groups,” Yellen said, calling Garrett’s descriptions of her meetings “quite a mischaracterization.”
She strongly reiterated her disapproval of Republican-supported legislation that would increase congressional oversight of the central bank.
Conservative Republicans in the House and Senate are pushing the measures as a way to gain more control over the central bank, which they see as too secretive and too powerful a government institution.
