A House-passed provision to open up the Federal Reserve to an audit by the Government Accountability Office is unlikely to be included in the Senate reform package, Barney Frank told a meeting of House Financial Services Committee members Wednesday, according to people in the room.

Frank, chairman of the committee, told the members that Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) told him that he had assured Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) that it wouldn’t be a part of the bill. Gregg has been a strident opponent of the effort to open the Fed to an audit.

Last November, Gregg said that “passage of the Paul Amendment by the House Financial Services Committee is a dangerous move by this Congress to pander to the populist anger currently directed against our central bank, the Federal Reserve,” in a statement after the committee approved an amendment sponsored by Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Alan Grayson (D-Fla.).

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