A bill that would require the U.S. Treasury to report the protocols given to national security, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies on the dissemination of financial data went through a markup session in the House Financial Services Committee.
In addition, the Financial Privacy Act (H.R. 5485) would also require the Treasury to coordinate with the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General to annually review and revise these protocols to better tailor the government’s data collection for legitimate national security, law enforcement, and intelligence purposes.
“The U.S. government has no right to monitor your financial activity – that is a basic privacy right of all Americans,” Rep. French Hill (R-AR), the sponsor of the bill, said. “Each year, Treasury collects millions of reports from banks on their customers in order to help prevent money laundering and other financial crimes. My bill, the Financial Privacy Act, would establish safeguards to prevent government overreach in accessing, disseminating, and retaining this sensitive data, and ensure Treasury’s data collection processes are constantly refined. I am pleased that my legislation was reported out of committee today and is headed to the House Floor.”
U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) is a cosponsor of this bill. Hill and Himes both serve on the House Financial Services Committee and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Hill is vice-chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Inclusion.
“FinCEN plays an essential role in tracking money launderers, terrorists, and other financial criminals. It’s important that FinCEN shares more information with Congress about how it gathers financial records so that we can conduct proper oversight and more effectively track illicit activity. I am proud to join Congressman Hill in supporting this bipartisan legislation,” Himes said.
The next step after a markup session would be a vote by the committee.