Robert Pittenger: “I thank the chairman for yielding, and I thank the gentleman for the leadership he has shown this past year on the issue…”

“I thank the chairman for yielding, and I thank the gentleman for the leadership he has shown this past year on the issue of terrorist group financing. I would also like to pay recognition and gratitude to Chairman Hensarling for his leadership on this, and Ranking Member Maxine Waters of California for her leadership. Particularly, I would like to make note of the ranking member of our Task Force to Investigate Terrorism Financing, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch), and thank the gentleman for his great efforts and work. Our task force bills on the floor today are the result of a bipartisan, year-long series of hearings that focused on ways to improve and tailor our laws to better address the evolving threats posed by terrorist groups within our financial sector. My bill, the Anti-Terrorism Information Sharing Is Strength Act, cosponsored with Ms. Maxine Waters of California, helps clarify our current illicit financial laws with Mr. Lynch and provides much-needed technical corrections to ensure that our current laws work as originally intended by Congress. We must work to ensure that private financial institutions are not penalized for working with the Federal Government to combat terrorism financing. Mr. Speaker, some Members of this body have been spreading some misinformation about our efforts, specifically regarding section 314 of the PATRIOT Act.…”