By Ben Weyl, CQ Staff

The Federal Reserve’s announcement that it would pursue new measures to boost the economy cheered financial markets, but revived a partisan debate in Washington over the central bank’s appropriate role in the economy and brought new calls from critics to restrain the Fed.

“I’m disappointed in the Federal Reserve’s actions today and truly believe Chairman Bernanke is beginning to do serious damage to the Fed as an institution,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who had issued a stern warning ahead of the Fed’s meeting this week not to further intervene in the economy.

Republicans have become increasingly critical of the Fed. The House in July passed a bill sponsored by longtime Fed critic Ron Paul, R-Texas, to allow government auditors to examine the Fed’s monetary policy deliberations. The proposal also was included in the GOP platform approved at the Republicans’ convention in Tampa, Fla.

Ben S. Bernanke has said such a bill could lead to the “nightmare scenario” of Congress impeding the Fed’s independence and chilling future interventions. The bill is not expected to advance in the Senate, but legislative action targeting the Fed could gain traction in the future, particularly if Republicans gain a majority in the Senate or take the White House.

Coming less than two months before the November elections, the Fed’s decision to launch a new round of open-ended monetary stimulus also pushed questions surrounding the bank and Bernanke into presidential politics, with Republicans and the campaign of GOP nominee Mitt Romney saying the new actions showed that President Obama’s economic policies haven’t worked.

The Fed’s third round of what’s called quantitative easing was perhaps more expansive than previous actions because the bank put no real time limits on its decision to purchase an additional $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities per month. The Fed also promised to keep interest rates at essentially zero until at least mid-2015 — beyond its previous commitment to late 2014 — and signaled a willingness to take further steps if necessary.

“We anticipate that we’ll have to do more, and we’ll do enough to make sure the economy gets on the right track,” Bernanke said, adding that the unemployment rate would not be the only benchmark used when evaluating the economy.

That drew the ire of Republicans, who said they would step up their attempts to bring the Fed under tighter control.

“Today’s actions by the Federal Reserve reinforce what many of us in Congress believe: The Federal Reserve is in need of fundamental reform,” said Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J.

‘Radical and Unprecedented’

At an event hosted by the American Banker on Thursday, Garrett decried the “radical and unprecedented actions” of Bernanke’s Fed. He called for a major legislative overhaul of the Fed, including limiting chairmen to single terms and removing some of its regulatory powers over the financial industry.

The pressure on the Fed from the political world has only grown as the U.S. economy has weakened through the summer, and the announcement of such a broad stimulus so close to the election drew scorn from the GOP, which framed it as an implicit criticism of Obama.

“The actions of the Federal Reserve today make one thing clear: The economic policies of the current administration have failed miserably,” said House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California.