Timely Delivery of Bank Secrecy Act Reports Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding time this evening.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 7734, which would require the Treasury Secretary, upon the request of Congress, to deliver Bank Secrecy Act, or BSA, reports within 30 days to congressional staff.

Additionally, it would create a similar requirement for financial institutions to share BSA filings with Congress.

Currently, SARs, or suspicious activity reports, may be viewed by congressional staff in a reading room at Treasury. Due to the sensitive nature of these reports, congressional staff are prohibited from copying the materials and taking them away from Treasury or FinCEN.

There have been several high-profile leaks of SARs over the past few years. In one instance, a FinCEN employee, who was later sentenced to 6 months in prison, leaked thousands of SARs to BuzzFeed News.

This legislation would increase the number of individuals who have access to hard copies of these reports and will lead to more leaks, I fear, of sensitive information.

Having served on a community bank board, I know how subjective SARs can be, and I fear that this information will put our entire system in jeopardy.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose this legislation.

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