(Bloomberg) -- Mike Pence tried to change how theFederal Reserve operates when he was acongressman. If he becomes vice president, he’ll be in a betterposition to help make it happen.

Before becoming governor of Indiana and now presidential candidate Donald Trump’snewly picked running mate, Pence was a key lawmaker among HouseRepublicans whose criticism of the Fed built to a crescendo in 2010as the central bank began a $600 billion second round of bondpurchases to avert deflation and boost employment. Pence said atthe time that the quantitative easing would monetize the U.S.government’s debt and ignite inflation.

Pence -- along with Senator Bob Corker, who was also consideredby Trump for the vice presidentialnomination -- introduced legislation in 2010 to remove the Fed’sfull-employment mandate and have the central bank focus oninflation alone.

By “restraining the Fed and giving clarity to its missionfocused singularly on sound monetary policy, we can avoid futureshort-term fixes that have long-term inflationary consequences,”Pence said at the time. Full employment is economist-speak for thelevel that the economy can handle without igniting unwantedinflation.

While the inflation forecast has failed to come true, and hislegislation never made it to the House floor, Republican criticismof the Fed has become well-entrenched, especially since PresidentBarack Obama appointed Janet Yellen to succeed Chairman Ben S.Bernanke.

The idea of Fed reform has picked up steam, as Republicans haverefined their proposals to make changes to how the central bankoperates. There are also calls from the left for reforms in howregional Fed presidents -- who vote on monetary policy -- areappointed.

In a November 2010 speech to the Detroit Economic Club, Pence,who was then chairman of the House Republican Conference, made aprediction about the Fed’s bond buying. “While there is noguarantee that this policy will succeed in reducing unemployment,it is near certain that the value of the dollar will be diluted,”he said.

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index has risen 24 percent since theFed announced QE2 in November 2010, as U.S. growth outpaced otheradvanced economies.

Not everything he said would be anathema to Yellen and hercolleagues. Pence said in 2010 that the central bank shouldn’tshoulder all the burden of aiding the economy -- something that’sbecome a common refrain not just from the Fed, but from centralbankers and economists around the world, where persistently weakgrowth has spurred even more unorthodox policies such as negativeinterest rates.

“The onus for growing jobs in this country should not fall onthe Fed,” Pence said at the time. “It should fall on policy makersin this administration and in the coming Congress.”

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