Banking Transparency for Sanctioned Persons Act of 2018

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6751, the Banking Transparency for Sanctioned Persons Act, which is a commonsense reporting requirement that will allow our Congress to better oversee financial sanctions against state sponsors of terrorism, human rights abusers, and perpetrators of corruption around the world.

This bill is simple but important. Every 180 days, the Treasury Department would be required to send Congress a report with two sets of information. The first is a copy of any license issued by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control that authorizes a financial institution to provide services benefitting a state sponsor of terrorism--such as Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Sudan--that would otherwise be prohibited.

Second, Treasury would have to provide a list of any foreign banks that conduct significant transactions for persons we have sanctioned for serious human rights abuses and corruption, a group that includes Russian Government officials behind the imprisonment and death of Sergei Magnitsky, Burmese military officers responsible for ethnic cleansing, and individuals in Latin America responsible for beating and killing of peaceful protesters.

Such a report would be a tremendous asset for Congress, and sharing this kind of information with Congress should be automatic, because licenses represent exemptions to our sanction programs. Some of those exemptions may be controversial, while others may enjoy broad support. The point is that congressional oversight of sanctions is limited without visibility into transactions Treasury is authorizing.

As for foreign banks' dealings with perpetrators of corruption and human rights abuses, Congress can use this information not only to better oversee existing sanctions, but to design a more effective program in the future.

Some of the questions we can begin to answer by having greater awareness of sanctioned persons' access to foreign financial services include: Are foreign banks exposing themselves to money laundering risk or facilitating activities that run counter to our national interests? And should our diplomats be exerting stronger pressure on those banks' governments in order to cut off bad actors?

Finally, I would like to note that we have been very deliberate in ensuring that the reporting required by this bill is as easy to administer as possible because we don't want to impose reporting requirements that could keep Treasury from the day-to-day work of designating bad actors. Therefore, this is a twice-a-year submission that entails no analysis and no narrative. It is as straightforward as scanning licenses and assembling a list to Treasury that that they already have components of, after which we could then follow up with questions in hearings, briefings, and the like.

I would like to thank the chairman for his support on this bill and thank all the members of the Financial Services Committee on both sides of the aisle for supporting this.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 6751.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, this legislation requires the Secretary of the Treasury to report to Congress every 6 months a list of the licenses it issues to financial institutions to provide services to countries and persons subject to certain U.S. sanctions. It also provides Congress with information about foreign financial firms that similarly provide support to those same countries and persons.

I very much support the goal of this bill because I believe it is a disclosure requirement that will serve as a useful oversight tool for Congress. For example, today, when the Office of Foreign Assets Control, OFAC, issues a specific license to a company or other entity that allows them to engage in activity that otherwise would be prohibited by the U.S. sanctions, those licenses are not currently disclosed by OFAC.

I also support the bill's other reporting requirement related to foreign financial firms. These lists of foreign financial institutions can provide a useful basis around which to discuss with the administration its overall strategy with respect to its sanctions programs; and these lists can also provide Members the opportunity to press the administration to impose restrictions on these institutions to change their behavior, if warranted.

The bill allows for the classification of these disclosures to Congress, which is important because I think it will be counterproductive to have this information revealed publicly. For example, OFAC licenses often contain commercially sensitive information, so if these licenses were publicly released, potential market competitors could gain an unfair competitive advantage; and if companies could no longer expect licenses to remain private, they would be less likely to apply for them, which, generally, would not be a good thing.

With respect to the lists of foreign financial institutions, it is important to remember that these institutions are not bound by U.S. sanctions or other designations, and they haven't necessarily violated any particular laws or prohibitions.

While Congress should know about how these sanctions are being implemented, including how effective they are at stopping the financing of activities, I don't think the public identification of these foreign firms would serve a useful policy purpose and could otherwise move legal activity into a shade of gray.

The bill does allow for a classified annex with the reporting requirements, and, as I said, I think this is a good bill

that will increase congressional oversight of U.S. sanction activities appropriately.

Mr. Speaker, I support the bill and urge my colleagues to support it.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6751) to increase transparency with respect to financial services benefitting state sponsors of terrorism, human rights abusers, and corrupt officials, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Utah (Mrs. Love).

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.