And the Congress, through the Government Accountability Office, can and does audit all parts of operations, except for monetary policy and related areas explicitly exempted by a 1978 provision passed by the Congress. The Congress created that exemption to protect monetary policy from short-term political pressures and thereby to support our ability to effectively pursue our mandated objectives of maximum employment and price stability.
Moreover, in the period of QE from 2001 to 2006, the Bank committed to continuing with QE "until the annual rate of change in the CPI registers zero percent or above in a stable manner." However, these policies were insufficient to overcome deflation.