Ann Wagner: “Dow Jones has said that the information provided to it from NGOs like Liberty Asia and others is relevant and actionable…”

“Dow Jones has said that the information provided to it from NGOs like Liberty Asia and others is relevant and actionable in its anti-money laundering work. This bill enables FinCEN and financial institutions to gather hard intelligence that can be verified or disproven, rather than rely on, as I said, general, useless, or even faulty tips from nonprofits, private citizens, and other sources without technical experience that could lead to false identifications and persecution of innocent actors. It is the lack of verifiable specificity and the lack of regulated accreditation that allows for the targeting of innocent groups. This bill creates a process, run by Treasury, where responsible nonprofits that professionally analyze information and create intelligence products that help financial institutions better identify these crimes can share information without worrying about whether sharing this information is going to end their organizations. I could go on and on, but Members of this body should never forget what we are doing today is protecting the 40 million victims of trafficking around the world. Human trafficking is a horrific crime that represents $150 billion per year, and it is far too often funded by the U.S. financial system. This is preventable, and today, we are taking steps towards ending America's financing of exploitation of our most vulnerable. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. The SPEAKER pro tempore.…”