The Fed's Janet Yellen Ramped Up Outreach to Republicans in May

        By Kate Davidson
        Congress kept Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen busy during the month of May, as Republicans demanded more details on a criminal leak investigation and introduced measures to revamp the central bank.
        Ms. Yellen met with lawmakers or spoke with them over the phone 11 times that month, according to her calendar, which was obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request. That's nearly twice as many meetings with lawmakers as she held in March, her second-busiest month for Hill outreach since taking the Fed's helm in February 2014.
        Of the 15 business days Ms. Yellen spent in Washington during the month of May, nine of them included interactions with lawmakers. She met or spoke nine times with Republicans, and twice with Democrats.
        The Fed does not disclose which side requested the meeting, but the calendar offers some clues.
        On May 4, Ms. Yellen had a 20-minute phone call with House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R., Texas), whose committee had subpoenaed the Fed for documents related to the possible leak of confidential information at its 2012 policy meeting.
        Forty-five minutes after the call ended, the Fed released a letter from Ms. Yellen to Mr. Hensarling and Rep. Sean Duffy (R., Wis.), the chairman of the panel's oversight subcommittee, informing them for the second time that she would not turn over all of the details they demanded until the Fed's inspector general wrapped up a parallel criminal probe.
        On May 7, Ms. Yellen spoke for 15 minutes in the morning with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) who has criticized the Fed's oversight of big banks.
        Later that afternoon, Ms. Warren and Sen. David Vitter (R., La.) released legislation that would force the Fed's seven-member board to vote on major enforcement actions, and would give each governor his or her own staff--changes the lawmakers said would bring greater transparency to the central bank.
        On May 19 and 20, she spoke twice over the phone--for a half-hour each time--with Sen. Richard Shelby (R., Ala.), the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. On May 21, Mr. Shelby's committee voted on a bill that would make a handful of changes to the Fed's structure. He and Mr. Hensarling also released a letter that week calling on the Fed chairwoman to testify more frequently on bank regulatory matters.
        Ms. Yellen also spoke with Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), a member of the Banking Committee and Fed ally who spoke out against legislation that would subject the central bank's monetary policy decisions to a congressional audit. The two spoke twice briefly, over the phone, in the days leading up to the Senate Banking Committee vote.
        Ms. Yellen met twice with Mr. Duffy, who has pressed Ms. Yellen for more information on the leak probe. The pair spoke for a half-hour over the phone on May 13, and had breakfast on May 20. On May 21, the committee issued a subpoena to the Fed for documents related to the leak.
        The chairwoman also spoke last month with Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Banking Committee's top Democrat, and met for an hour each with Rep. Frank Lucas (R., Okla.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas).
        The Fed has not yet released Ms. Yellen's June calendar.
        Related reading:
        How Does Janet Yellen Spend Her Time? Explore Her Official Calender
        House Committee Will Interview Fed Staffers on Leak Probe, Chairman Says
        Janet Yellen's Fed Flounders in Political Arena
        Key House Lawmaker Sends Subpoena to Fed Over 2012 Leak
        Yellen: Fed Was Advised Against Fully Complying With Subpoena on Leak Probe
        (END) Dow Jones Newswires

        July 13, 2015 14:04 ET (18:04 GMT)

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