09/26/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/26/2025 12:17
WASHINGTON, D.C. - In case you missed it, Senators Rick Scott and Ted Cruz wrote an op-ed in the Washington Examiner calling for the full passage of their FAIR Act to support President Trump's efforts to fix the Federal Reserve. The FAIR Act stops the Federal Reserve from wasting $1 trillion over the next decade on bank reserves. Instead, these dollars could be used to actually benefit American families.
In the op-ed, Senators Rick Scott and Ted Cruz write, "…the president has another opportunity to make the nation's central bank work for, not against, the American people. He can support our bill, the Fiscal Accountability for Interest on Reserves Act, to end a pricey Fed policy that sends billions of dollars each year to big banks and squeezes working-class Americans with higher interest rates.
For nearly a century, the Fed paid zero interest on reserves that banks were required to keep. But when the financial crisis hit in 2008, Congress gave it immediate authority to pay interest on these cash balances that banks kept on deposit at the Fed overnight.
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When reckless Biden administration-era spending caused soaring inflation, the Fed responded by raising interest rates. This meant banks, including foreign banks, could earn much heftier returns with zero risk by depositing even more cash at the central bank.
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Throughout former President Joe Biden's term, the total amount of interest paid by the Fed to banks rose by more than 3,000% and amounted to almost half a trillion dollars.
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The Fed is expected to send another $1 trillion to banks in the next decade... Those payments ultimately come at taxpayers' expense.
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…the Fed's interest payments hurt every American. These dollars belong to taxpayers to invest in what matters to them and support their ambitions and success. Instead, they are going to support big banks, both here and abroad.
These payments inhibit our country's economic growth and stifle business. Every dollar banks park at the Fed is a dollar they aren't investing in local businesses, job creators, and communities.
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Our bill would end this farce. The FAIR Act repeals the Fed's permission to make these interest payments - period.
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If the FAIR Act were enacted, [t]hat would give Trump the de facto interest rate cut he rightly seeks. And…Congress would have made life more affordable for families buying homes, cars, and other big purchases.
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This reform is urgently needed and long overdue. The FAIR Act would end the Fed's operating losses, lead to more federal revenue over the next decade, give job creators better access to capital, and bring down interest rates for everyday Americans…and allow…people to seize their American dream."
Read the full op-ed in the Washington Examiner HERE.
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