U.S. Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) is espousing the benefits of reintroducing the Fair Access to Banking Act, maintaining it would deter financial institutions from being used to achieve political agendas.
“Banks should make lending decisions relying on objective, risk-based metrics, not the standards of woke corporate cancel culture,” said Barr, House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy chairman. “My legislation codifies the Fair Access Rule to ensure that radical environmentalists, gun control advocates, crypto antagonists, and other political activists cannot weaponize financial institutions in their fight to achieve their political agenda.”
The legislation is endorsed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), National Rifle Association (NRA), National Mining Association (NMA), Blockchain Association, National Pawn Brokers Association, and the Kentucky Coal Association.
“Congressman Barr’s Fair Access to Banking bill is vital to ensure financial service providers aren’t discriminating against lawful industries like the firearm industry to score points with the ‘woke’ cancel culture,” NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel
Lawrence G. Keane said. “This legislation will ensure financial institutions, when deciding whether or not to offer services to fully legal and lawful businesses, make such decisions based upon verifiable financial data and not on the political or social views of a few bank executives.”
NMA President and CEO Rich Nolan said Americans and American businesses have been subjected to an extended period of economic uncertainty, and the availability of credit is more important than ever to return to a period of economic stability.
“All industries need financial institutions to make lending decisions based on the facts – not on subjective criteria that allow banks to pick market winners and losers among the industries that are the foundation of the U.S. economy,” Nolan said.