The Relationship between the Federal Reserve System and the Government

Congress oversees the entire Federal Reserve System. And the Fed must work within the objectives established by Congress. Yet Congress gave the Federal Reserve the autonomy to carry out its responsibilities insulated from political pressure. Each of the Fed's three parts — the Board of Governors, the regional Reserve Banks and the Federal Open Market Committee — operates independently of the federal government to carry out the Fed's core responsibilities. For more information, see In Plain English on the web site of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis at http://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/pleng/default.html.