Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, suspicious activity reports and other materials, collectively known as ``BSA reports,'' are held by Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, and can be critical to congressional investigations. For example, this committee has requested documents related to our ongoing investigation into the flow of illicit funds from the former Soviet states into the United States. There is a long history of cooperation on the proper exchange of these records, but in response to a recent Treasury-initiated reversal of decades-long practice, I have found it necessary to introduce this bill, H.R. 7734. Unfortunately, Treasury has severely restricted congressional access to suspicious activity reports, or SARs, by requiring congressional staff to review all material in a reading room, prohibiting the copying of materials, and restricting information collection to notetaking alone. These limitations are not placed upon the Federal, State, and local agencies that have been granted access to review SARs. Treasury has no statutory basis for imposing restrictions on congressional authority to obtain SARs. Neither legislative language, statutory provision, nor case law prohibits government personnel or the financial institutions from providing these materials to Congress.…”