Congress demands the Fed show its spending—and research priorities.
H.R. 3173 — Federal Reserve Financial Accountability and Transparency Act · Filed by Roger Williams (R-TX) · Introduced May 1, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires the Federal Reserve to publish detailed breakdowns in its annual report showing how much money and staff it spends on specific functions—supervision, legal work, payments processing, research, and international coordination—for each of its 12 regional banks. It also requires disclosure of the Fed's top three research priorities and spending on each rule or policy the Fed proposed or finalized. The requirement takes effect two years after enactment.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is to expand mandatory disclosure requirements for a federal agency's annual report. It does not change the Fed's powers, structure, or policy—only what it must publicly report about its spending and priorities.
What the text implies
- Disclosure of research priorities and spending per rule/policy may expose internal Fed disagreements or reveal which regulatory initiatives consume the most resources, potentially inviting political pressure on specific programs.
- Itemization by regional bank may highlight disparities in spending and staffing across the 12 Federal Reserve districts, raising questions about resource allocation and regional economic priorities.
- Mandatory disclosure of international coordination spending and engagement with bodies like the Basel Committee and Bank for International Settlements may fuel political debate over the Fed's role in global financial governance.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Citizens and their elected representatives gain concrete visibility into how the Federal Reserve—a powerful, semi-independent agency that sets monetary policy and regulates banks—allocates its $8+ billion annual budget and staff. Transparency over government spending and priorities is a foundational democratic good, and the Fed's operations have historically been opaque to public scrutiny. No offsetting cost to citizens is apparent.
Named in the bill
Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Federal Reserve Act, Section 10, 12 Federal Reserve Banks, Bank for International Settlements, Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, Network for Greening the Financial System
Where it stands
- May 1, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- May 1, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Financial Services · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,810 characters) on Jun 8, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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