Alan Grayson has worked tirelessly since becoming a member of Congress to expose the corruption and lack of accountability at the Federal Reserve, and Firedoglake has been proud to support his efforts.

When nobody was really paying attention, Grayson began working to sign Democratic cosponsors to Ron Paul’s H.R. 1207, which authorizes the GAO to conduct a wide-ranging audit of the Fed — something that has never been done it its history. Thanks to his efforts, the bill has gone from 190 to 311 bipartisan cosponsors.

When a last-minute attempt by leadership and the banks threatened to derail the Paul-Grayson bill, Firedoglake circulated a letter signed by labor leaders, noted economists, authors and financial bloggers to demonstrate progressive support for the effort. The letter pulled no punches, asserting that the Fed had “extended massive secret bailouts to major financial institutions” and calling upon Democrats on the Financial Services Committee to stand up to the banks by supporting the Paul-Grayson bill.

Despite the vocal opposition of Chairman Barney Frank and the fierce lobbying on the part of the central bank itself, 15 Democrats bucked leadership and the measure passed. According to the Huffington Post, “Key to winning Democratic support was a letter posted early Thursday from labor leaders and progressive economists” which was “organized by the liberal blog Firedoglake…Grayson was able to show Democratic colleagues that the liberal base was behind them.” During the committee debate, Grayson quoted from the letter.

Firedoglake is proud to be a part of this historic moment, and of the role we played in supporting Rep. Grayson’s work by urging members of Congress from both parties to take an important step toward transparency in our financial system. Congratulations to the members of the Financial Services Committee for their remarkable achievement, and to Representatives Paul and Grayson for their hard work and leadership.