Inclusion of All Funds When Issuing Certain Geographic Targeting Orders

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I would like to start by thanking House Financial Services Committee Chairman Hensarling of Texas and Ranking Member Maxine Waters of California for creating the Financial Services Committee's Task Force to Investigate Terrorism Financing, which is a 21-member bipartisan group charged with ensuring that our government is using every tool at its disposal to deprive groups like the Islamic State, Boko Haram, and other terrorist organizations of the funds they rely on to advance their destructive ideology.

I would also like to thank our chairman, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick); our vice chair, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Pittenger); and the rest of my colleagues on the Financial Services Committee for their work to improve our efforts to halt terrorist financing.

The bill I introduced that is before us today expands the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's ability to collect information under geographic targeting orders. My colleagues on both sides of the aisle, including Mr. Peter King of New York, Ms. Maxine Waters of California, Mr. Michael Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Mr. Gregory Meeks of New York, Mr. Steve Stivers of Ohio, Mr. Bruce Poliquin of Maine, Mr. Robert Pittenger of North Carolina, Mr. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Mr. Andy Barr of Kentucky, Mr. Bill Foster of Illinois, Mr. Brad Sherman of California, Mr. French Hill of Arkansas, and Mr. Al Green of Texas, joined me in cosponsoring this important legislation.

During congressional delegations to foreign countries to deal with the central banks in other countries and also financial intelligence units from very difficult locations, we made it a priority to meet with regional financial intelligence units to get updates on efforts to combat terrorist financing. Witnessing the important work of the FIUs around the globe demonstrates the need for the United States to continue to support efforts to develop robust legal, regulatory, and operational frameworks to combat terrorist financing and money laundering.

In line with that, it is crucial that we work to strengthen the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, FinCEN, the U.S. financial intelligence unit. By sharing financial intelligence with law enforcement, private industry, and its foreign counterparts, FinCEN supports financial crime investigations throughout the world. Terrorists' proven ability to move money through innovative means necessitates continued progress in this critical counterterrorism area.

The smart, brave Americans who serve at FinCEN work tirelessly every day to track and stop the flow of proceeds of crime and funds that would otherwise be used to aid terrorism in order to safeguard our financial system from evolving money laundering and national security threats.

FinCEN's critical role is evidenced through its recent support to the Paris and Belgium terrorist attack investigations, where FinCEN's expertise assisted in quickly identifying links between those two attacks. FinCEN published 51 intelligence reports related to the Paris attacks and two intelligence reports related to the Brussels attack. Moreover, FinCEN's financial intelligence played an important role in identifying potential Islamic State foreign terrorist fighters.

With increasingly complex and rapidly evolving terrorist networks, we need to ensure that we provide FinCEN with all of the tools and resources it needs to fight evolving terrorist threats.

The geographic targeting order expansion is a new device in the counterterrorism financing toolkit to catch bad actors that are adapting to our countermeasures. If enacted into law, this legislation will allow us to identify wider networks of terrorist financiers and their enablers. We introduced this legislation because the experts at FinCEN told us they need it to stop bad actors.

So on behalf of Representatives Peter King, Maxine Waters, Mike Fitzpatrick, Greg Meeks, Steve Stivers, Bruce Poliquin, Bob Pittenger, Keith Ellison, Andy Barr, Bill Foster, Brad Sherman, French Hill, and Al Green, I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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