Financial Technology Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BUDD. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend, the ranking member, for yielding, and I want to start by congratulating him on his new role on the Financial Services Committee. Certainly, he makes our home State, the Old North State, proud.

I also want to congratulate the new chair on her position as chair of our committee, and I look forward to working with her in a bipartisan fashion whenever I can.

I also have to thank my colead on H.R. 56, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch), for his leadership on illicit financing issues, and this bill in particular. I always enjoy teaming up with him, and I value his input and expertise on these issues. I am hopeful we will see some movement on his kleptocracy legislation soon, and I am proud to be coleading that bill with the gentleman.

Today, Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of my bipartisan legislation, the Financial Technology Protection Act. I have said this many times before, but I will say it again because it bears repeating: Illicit financing networks are the linchpin of any terrorist group, criminal organization, or rogue state's operations.

As we move into an increasingly digital and virtual world, criminals and terrorists will start to use new technologies that are available to them. This shouldn't shock anyone. Of course, we all recognize the good that comes with innovation and new technology, but there will always be bad actors as well.

The bottom line is that the Federal Government has to be one step ahead of the illicit actors in this new space without threatening technological innovation, and that is what this bill will do. It will do this by giving the private sector additional tools to protect their new technology, hence the name for the bill, the Financial Technology Protection Act.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 56 is a culmination of months of work with outside groups all over the political spectrum, from national security groups that appreciate the task force to trade and industry groups that appreciate the new tools being given to them that will help them better protect their industry and livelihood.

I think that this bill strikes an impressive balance and is an example of some bipartisan areas that we can work together on in the 116th Congress. Specifically, Mr. Speaker, my legislation will do the following things:

First, and perhaps most importantly, H.R. 56 establishes the Fintech Leadership in Innovation and Financial Intelligence Program, which will be used for grants and rewards in the fintech space for ideas and programs to combat terrorist use of digital currencies. These technologies would be open access and open source. Experts in the private sector can track illicit use of these currencies and perhaps do a better job of leveraging their talent to create tools and programs through the Fintech Leadership and Financial Intelligence Program. We need to give them the ability to try, and that is exactly what this bill does.

Secondly, it establishes the Independent Financial Technology Task Force to Combat Terrorism and Illicit Financing, which will improve coordination and start conversations between the private and public sectors for new ways to combat illicit use. In my view, industry and the Federal Government should be coming together to find best practices and solutions to stop this new terrorist funding threat.

H.R. 56 includes language from H.R. 5227, the Preventing Rogue and Foreign Actors from Evading Sanctions Act, introduced last Congress by my friend, Mark Meadows of North Carolina. This language directs the Treasury Department to develop a strategy that identifies and describes the potential uses of virtual currencies and other related emerging technologies by states and nonstate actors, terrorist organizations to evade sanctions, finance terrorism, or launder monetary instruments and threaten the United States' national security. Again, the development of a national strategy to combat illicit use strikes me as common sense; therefore, we are excited to have it included in the bill and to have Mr. Meadows' support.

Finally, this Budd-Lynch legislation establishes a targeted rewards program for information leading to the capture of terrorists or illicit actors involved with terror digital currency networks. The government should be encouraging individuals with knowledge of illicit use of virtual currencies to come forward through the offerings of rewards for successful convictions.

Here is the bottom line: H.R. 56 is legislation that sparks private- sector innovation to deal with terror and illicit financing when it comes to virtual currencies, which ultimately benefits the underlying technology, the blockchain.

I think that Congress should be promoting programs and technologies that give industry the tools they need to save their technology and industry from illicit use and, hopefully, save them from further negotiation down the road.

I am very excited that this bill is up for a vote in the House today and has such strong bipartisan support.

Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of my bipartisan legislation and, once again, thank everyone who has had a hand in bringing this to the floor. It is an exciting day when we can focus on fintech, and I am hopeful for the future of this committee and the 116th Congress.

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