Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act of 2021
Floor Speech
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Mr. STIVERS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congressman Perlmutter for his hard work on this. I am an unlikely person to support this bill because I am opposed to recreational marijuana, but I came to this because a company that is just outside my district that sells nutrients now finds themselves in the situation where 25 percent of their profits come from selling to legal marijuana businesses, and they are being threatened, a Fortune 500 company, with losing their bank accounts.
We can't let that happen. We have got to make sure that we stand up for safety and stand up for common sense. That is what this bill does.
Three points about this bill. Number one, it encourages safety because money that is in a bank account can be frozen and can be tracked.
By the way, this bill also increases suspicious activity reports, so this idea about money laundering doesn't work because there are suspicious activity reports that are expanded under the bill, and you can freeze and track the money, which is really important. That is why a lot of folks in law enforcement like this bill.
The final thing is, this bill includes provisions to stop Operation Choke Point that Republicans couldn't even get passed when we had the presidency, the Senate, and the House, and we got that negotiated into this bill. It helps in a big way to make sure that there's not an Operation Choke Point in the future, so nobody can choke off legal businesses from their bank accounts and from access to the payments system. That is a big deal. I want to thank Congressman Perlmutter for allowing that.
Finally, before my time is up, I want to acknowledge Congressman Warren Davidson, who isn't going to be able to fly in in time for this. Congressman Davidson has been working on this bill with me for almost 2 years with Congressman Perlmutter. Warren Davidson has done an amazing job. I just want to acknowledge his hard work, all his efforts. We wouldn't be here today but for Congressman Warren Davidson.
I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1996.
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