On Thursday, Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Ted Budd, along with Congressmen Zach Nunn and Jim Himes, proposed a new law (bill).
A group of politicians from both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives introduced a new law (bill) on Thursday. This law would ask the federal government to research how people might be using cryptocurrencies for illegal activities and suggest ways to stop these uses.
The Financial Technology Protection Act is a new law (bill) that was proposed by a group of politicians including Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Ted Budd, and Congressmen Zachary Nunn and Jim Himes. This law would create a team to research how terrorists or other criminals could use new financial technologies like cryptocurrencies, and suggest ways for Congress and regulators to prevent them from doing so.
Congressman Zachary Nunn, who is in his first term, said in a phone call with CoinDesk that the aim of this new law (bill) is to carefully study the situation and create rules to manage it. This law has been proposed before, but it was not passed into law.
The situation is that our enemies are using new methods to pose a threat. This includes not only cybercriminals but also terrorists, drug cartels, and even some countries who are using illegal money laundering to do harmful activities like buying weapons, trafficking people, or buying dangerous drugs.
In a message, Congressman Jim Himes, who is a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee’s subcommittee on intelligence, said that our financial systems are changing very quickly. This means that we need to pay more attention to reduce the risk of abuse by terrorist groups.
Congressman Himes is happy to support the new team that will bring together experienced people from the Intelligence Community and experts in financial innovation. They will work together with a common goal of identifying and stopping bad people who are using illegal ways to finance their activities.
The new law (bill) was proposed before some important meetings where various subcommittees of the Financial Services Committee and the House Agriculture Committee will discuss topics related to cryptocurrencies and illegal finance.
The new team that would be created by this law (bill) will have members from many important government agencies like the U.S. Treasury Department, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Internal Revenue Services (IRS), Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Department of State, and CIA.
If this law (bill) is passed, then people from various companies that work in finance, such as analytics firms, financial institutions, and research organizations, would also be added to the team.
Many companies already have their own methods to tackle illegal finance activities and work with law enforcement, but the issue is that these methods are not consistent with each other. Congressman Nunn hopes that this law (bill) would bring all these companies together to have a coordinated approach to these issues.
The new law (bill) has set different dates and times by which the team needs to complete various tasks. This includes submitting annual reports to Congress explaining their activities and suggestions, and preparing a final report four years after the law is passed. The team would also have to submit other documents in the meantime.
The Congress would be informed about the findings and recommendations in these reports, as per the new law (bill).
This new law (bill) doesn’t talk about how cryptocurrencies should be regulated, which is still a big topic in Congress. Congressman Nunn pointed out that there is still confusion about which government agency should regulate cryptocurrencies, as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) report to different committees in Congress.
