The very public feud between U.S. President Donald Trump and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, is now raising questions about the future of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its promise to examine America’s gold holdings in Fort Knox. However, Congress does not appear to be giving up on the prospect of a potential audit.
On Friday, four members of Congress introduced a bill to initiate the first comprehensive audit of America’s gold reserves in decades. The proposed government audit comes as unsustainable government spending continues to erode confidence in the country’s creditworthiness.
The bill — the Gold Reserve Transparency Act (H.R. 3795) — sponsored by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Troy Nehls (R-TX), Addison McDowell (R-NC), and Warren Davidson (R-OH), would require a full assay, inventory, and audit of all United States gold holdings. It also calls for complete disclosure of all transactions involving America’s gold, including any purchases, sales, loans, pledges, leases, swaps, and other encumbrances dating back 50 years.
“Americans deserve transparency and accountability from the institutions that underpin our currency,” said Rep. Thomas Massie in a statement.
“It’s been literally decades since actual inventories and assays have been conducted with respect to U.S. gold reserves, and the Department of the Treasury has lost records, as well as failed to account for many occasions when vault compartments were inexplicably opened and resealed without new audits,” said Stefan Gleason, CEO of Money Metals Depository and Chairman of the Sound Money Defense League.
“The lack of proper audits of America’s gold is highly alarming and totally unacceptable — such shoddy procedures would never pass muster in the private sector,” continued Gleason, whose company operates a maximum-security gold and silver vault in Idaho that is twice the size of the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox. “Even if a credible audit had been conducted several decades ago, auditing is never a ‘one and done’ affair.”
The legislation comes as investors and nations slowly diversify away from the U.S. dollar and Treasuries and into gold, which has reestablished itself as a critical global monetary asset — one that carries no third-party or geopolitical risk.
In a comment to Kitco News, Jp Cortez, executive director of the Sound Money Defense League, said he expects the bill would help restore confidence in the U.S. dollar at a time when countries and central banks worldwide are reducing their USD exposure and actively repatriating their gold from the United States.
Recently, some German politicians have expressed concern about their nation’s gold being stored in America, and are now pushing to bring that bullion back to Germany.
“Now is the time for transparency surrounding America’s gold,” Cortez said. “As gold is the ultimate form of money recognized the world over, safeguarding the U.S. Treasury Department’s holdings of the yellow metal is very much a national security issue.”
Cortez added that this government legislation brings important gravitas to the task. Earlier this year, Musk stated that he wanted to personally audit the United States’ gold reserves at Fort Knox on behalf of DOGE, but no serious plans were ever proposed.
“Only a thorough audit, not a public-relations stunt such as the ‘live walkthrough’ proposed by Elon Musk and others, will suffice,” said Cortez. “This situation requires far more than a fun one-day field trip by politicians to Fort Knox, West Point, and other U.S. Treasury vaults.”
Story by Neils Christensen
