Everything you say is a little wrong. There's nothing unusual about bills passing just before a recess. The Federal Reserve Act was big news at that time. Exte

Everything you say is a little wrong. There's nothing unusual about bills passing just before a recess. The Federal Reserve Act was big news at that time. Extensive hearings were held on it and it received overwhelming support from Democrats in Congress as well as President Wilson. The Federal Reserve is partly a federal agency (led by the Board of Governors) and partly a group of quasi-independent banks. The 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks are nominally independent, but have a lot of control from the federal agency, including direction of their open market operations. The Federal Reserve does not directly lend money to the federal government. It usually buys U.S. Treasury securities on the open market. This benefits the government by leading to lower interest rates. Most of the profits from the Federal Reserve are paid to the U.S. federal government (the member banks get a 6% dividend on what they are required to pay in to the Reserve).