{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/dr-rand-paul-introduces-end-the-feds-big-bank-bailout-act/", "Dr. Rand Paul Introduces \u201cEnd the Fed\u2019s Big Bank Bailout Act\u201d", "2025-06-23", "2025", "2025-06", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:\n\nJune 20th, 2025\n\nContact: Press_Paul@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343\n\nDr. Rand Paul Introduces \u201cEnd the Fed\u2019s Big Bank Bailout Act\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced the End the Fed\u2019s Big Bank Bailout Act, legislation to prohibit the Federal Reserve from paying interest on balances held at Federal Reserve banks by or on behalf of depository institutions.\n\n\u201cOur country is over $36 trillion in debt,\u201d said Dr. Paul. \u201cBut no one pays attention to the hundreds of billions of dollars the Federal Reserve unnecessarily paid to banks to NOT lend money to consumers.\u201d\n\nUntil 2008, the Federal Reserve paid no interest to banks on reserve balances. That changed after the financial crisis, when Congress authorized the payments as a tool to control the money supply. From 2008 to 2016, interest payments averaged just $5 billion annually. But with the Fed\u2019s rate now above 4 percent, these payments have exploded.\n\n\u201cIn 2022, the Fed paid $60 billion to banks. In 2023, the Fed payments to banks rose to over $176 billion. And in 2024, the Fed\u2019s subsidy to banks rose to about $186 billion. The Fed has been operating at a loss since September 2022,\u201d Dr. Paul continued. \u201cWhile the Fed no longer has profits and ceased returning those profits to the taxpayers by remitting those funds to the Treasury, it still, to this very day, pays what has amounted to hundreds of billions of dollars to banks.\u201d\n\nThe End the Fed\u2019s Big Bank Bailout Act amends Section 19 of the Federal Reserve Act to eliminate the Fed\u2019s authority to make these interest payments. Senator Paul argues this simple change could save more than a trillion dollars over the next decade.\n\n\u201cAt a time of persistent and self-imposed worsening losses at the Fed, the manipulators of the American economy continue to pay banks to do nothing but have their funds sit in a safe,\u201d said Dr. Paul. \u201cHow can anybody, especially the populist Republicans and the entire Democratic Caucus, defend such a subsidy when supposed income inequality and the national debt is at the top of the political agenda?\u201d\n\nRead the bill HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:34:38Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.paul.senate.gov/dr-rand-paul-introduces-end-the-feds-big-bank-bailout-act/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7786571513861418, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}