This week, the U.S. House successfully passed H.R. 766, the Financial Institution Customer Protection Act, to protect small business owners. Southern Arizona communities like Nogales have been particularly hard hit after businesses were denied access to banking services as part of Operation Choke Point.
Small businesses have been denied bank accounts and use of the credit card systems for no apparent reason in some cases. Now, an amendment in the bill, sponsored by Congressman Paul Gosar, will increase transparency by requiring that financial institutions provide notice to customers if their account is ordered to be terminated by federal banking regulators.
The House of Representatives concluded a tense debate by voting 250-169 to end the oppressive Obama administration program. The vote was essentially along party lines, with the majority of the democrats voting against small business.
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According to Gosar, H.R. 766 would institute numerous reforms to bring more transparency and accountability to federal oversight of banks, all aimed at preventing the sort of unchecked abuse at the heart of OCP. For example, the bill would require regulators that suggest or order a bank to terminate a customer’s account to have material reasoning, with reference to any specific laws or regulations the enforcement agency believed were being violated. Moreover, no such reason could be based solely on “reputational risk,” the supposed basis for including firearm and ammunition businesses within the scope of OCP’s “high risk” target list. Regulating agencies would also have to submit annual reports to Congress documenting any such requests or orders. Finally, the bill would make important changes to the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989, which agencies have cited as authorization for OCP, to clarify the law’s scope so as conclusively to preempt this dubious justification.
“One of the many ways the federal government has abused its power under the Obama Administration is through unconstitutional programs like Operation Choke Point,” stated Gosar. “Appallingly, President Obama and the Attorney General have put unwarranted pressure on banks and payment processors to shut down gun stores, pawn shops and other businesses they don’t support. This administration has been staunch in its assault on the Second Amendment, and this horrific program is another tool utilized by the president and the Department of Justice to infringe upon the rights of lawful gun owners and businesses.”
“Operation Choke Point is a shameful example of the Obama Administration weaponizing federal agencies in order to hand pick winners and losers by intimidating financial institutions into implementing its political agenda. American citizens do not want big government to have the power to arbitrarily terminate their accounts at financial institutions based solely on ideological opposition to individuals or certain organizations,” concluded Gosar. “My amendment will increase transparency and protect consumers throughout the nation from lawless executive overreach.”
Critics have said the secretive program, run by the Department of Justice, has been used to target politically unpopular industries such as licensed gun dealers.
Several Arizona businesses were victims of Operation Choke Point including a gun manufacturer in Phoenix, American Spirit Arms in Scottsdale and Secure Account Services in Lake Havasu City.
“We’re elated,” Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., one of the bill’s co-sponsors, said after the vote. “We’ve been working on this for two and a half years—we’ve been lied to, put off and dissed by the different regulatory agencies, and we’ve prevailed.”