Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Federal Reserve appears to finally be reaching critical mass, and might actually pass. But an amendment quietly added by Charles Grassley last month may render it worthless. Instead of a comprehensive audit of the Fed, we might only get a peek into their books. Quotes from Huffington Post:

On page five of Grassley’s amendment, he intends to give the Comptroller General of the Government Accountability Office power to audit “any action taken by the Board under…the third undesignated paragraph of section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act” — which would be almost everything that it has done on an emergency basis to address the financial crisis, encompassing its massive expansion of opaque buying and lending.

Handwritten into the margins, however, is the amendment that watered it down: “with respect to a single and specific partnership or corporation.” With that qualification, the Senate severely limited the scope of the oversight.

Keep the pressure on to get a comprehensive audit and review done. This watered-down crap won’t fly.