Reintroduced bill from Congress would require Feds to study terrorist uses for crypto
A bipartisan bill introduced to both the US Senate and House of Representatives on Thursday would call on the federal government to study instances of crypto use for illegal activity and make recommendations on how to curtail that use.
The Financial Technology Protection Act, co-sponsored by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (DN.Y.) and Ted Budd (RN.C.) and Congressmen Zachary Nunn (R-Iowa) and Jim Himes (D-Conn.), would create a task force tasked with studying how terrorists or other criminals can use cryptocurrencies and other new financial technologies, and making proposals to Congress and regulatory agencies aimed at countering those uses.
The goal is to conduct an analysis and develop a regulatory structure that responds to that, Nunn, a first-term congressman, said in a phone call with CoinDesk. The bill was previously tabled twice.
“The reality is that the threat vector is changing for our adversaries, not just for cybercriminals, but really the terrorists and the cartels and even the nation states that are using illicit money laundering to do everything from buying weapons to trafficking people across the border to buying fentanyl , ” he said.
In a statement, Himes, who is the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said, “the rapid evolution of our financial systems requires increased attention to reduce risk and combat abuse by terrorist organizations.”
“I am pleased to support this task force which will unite senior members of the intelligence community with experts in financial innovation under the joint mission of tracking illicit financing from malicious actors,” he said.
The group will be composed of representatives from the US Department of the Treasury, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Internal Revenue Services (IRS), the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the Department of State and CIA.
Industry representatives from research firms, financial institutions, research organizations and other financial technology companies will also be appointed to the group if the bill is passed.
Many of these firms already have their own approaches to illicit financing, including their involvement with law enforcement, but “the problem is that it’s quite fragmented,” Nunn said. He hopes the bill will lead to a more unified approach to these issues from the industry.
The bill outlines a number of deadlines for the group, ranging from annual reports on what the group has done in the past year and what recommendations it has; a final report four years after the bill is signed into law; and other temporary documents.
Congress will be briefed on the results of these various reports, the bill states.
The bill does not enter into the broader conversation in Congress about how crypto should be regulated. Nunn noted that jurisdictional issues remain between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), each of which reports to a different congressional committee.
DIRECTION (April 27, 2023, 14:20 UTC): Corrects that Congressman Himes is the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee.
