Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is spending so much time on the Hill these days that he takes his lunch wherever he can, recently plopping down at a tiny desk inside Rep. Barney Frank’s office to sneak a sandwich.

[efoods]Bernanke can expect to brown-bag it a lot more in the coming months as he faces a rising tide of congressional scrutiny and growing concerns that the once-untouchable Fed is becoming an out-of-control financial Frankenstein with $2.2 trillion in loans on its books.

“The fact is that the American people want to know more of the ‘Secrets of the Temple,’” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters Thursday, referring to the 1989 William Greider book examining the Federal Reserve. “A balance has to be struck as to what is required to run the Fed in a responsible way, about what transparency there should be.”

House and Senate members of both parties praise Bernanke’s bold moves in saving the banking sector from complete collapse, but they don’t like the way he’s done it, bypassing congressional funding channels and rebuffing some calls for oversight.

“If you think about the power that the Federal Reserve has at this particular moment in history, it’s incredible,” said Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.).

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