BURLINGTON, Vt., March 21 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement on today’s Supreme Court order leaving intact a 2010 federal appeals court decision that the Federal Reserve must divulge the identity of commercial banks that received emergency loans from the central bank during the financial crisis:

“The Supreme Court order is another major victory for the American taxpayer and will peel away another layer of secrecy at the Federal Reserve.

“On December 1, as a result of a provision I authored in the Wall Street reform bill, the American people learned the jaw-dropping details of the trillions of dollars in emergency lending the Fed provided to too-big-to-fail banks, corporations, foreign entities, and billionaire investors.

“Now, the American people also will learn which financial institutions received Fed loans under the discount window during the financial crisis and the exact details of these arrangements.

“Chairman Bernanke now must finally understand that this money doesn’t belong to the Federal Reserve, it belongs to the American people and the American people have a right to know how their taxpayer dollars are being put at risk.”