Humphrey-Hawkins Act

Also known as the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978. Legislation that required the Federal Reserve to set one-year target ranges for money supply growth and to report those targets twice a year to Congress. The legislation also required the chairman of the Federal Reserve to speak to Congress on the state of the economy twice a year in what was called the Humphrey-Hawkins report. That legislation expired in 2000 and the Fed said it would no longer set money supply growth targets. Indeed, the use of money supply growth targets had ceased through much of the 1990s. Even though the Federal Reserve chairman is no longer required to address Congress, that practice has continued; he typically goes before Congress in January or February and July.