Kucinich’s Federal Reserve hearing postponed

The hearing would have been held by Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s Domestic Policy subcommittee, which Kucinich chairs. He announced the hearing last week and scheduled it for Tuesday. No new date has been set yet, according to a subcommittee staffer. And with the brief lame-duck session already crowded with legislative work, some are skeptical Kucinich will be able to hold the hearing before handing the chairman’s gavel over to Republicans next year.

No Fed officials were scheduled to testify when the hearing was unveiled. Instead, Kucinich had invited officials from the Congressional Research Service, the Center for Economic Policy and Research, the American Enterprise Institute, Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, and the American Monetary Institute to testify, according to a Republican on the committee.

The hearing would have explored the Fed’s decision to buy $600 billion of long-term Treasury bonds in an effort to boost lending. Republicans have heavily criticized the move, and Kucinich’s entry into the debate marked the first aggressive move by a Democratic lawmaker to take on the central bank.

When he announced the hearing, Kucinich said it would look at ways to boost the U.S. economy through “changes in the role of the Fed.”