[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 168 (Monday, September 27, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6705-S6707]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTION

                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. TUBERVILLE:
  S. 2857. A bill to prohibit any Federal agency from requiring 
financial institutions to report on the financial transactions of their 
customers; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

  Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, you know, these days, information is 
only a few clicks away on your computer, and there is more information 
to be consumed than there are hours in the day. It is information 
overload, and it is overwhelming to sift through all the noise. But no 
matter the narrative being pushed, one thing remains: the facts. The 
facts don't lie. It is information overload.
  The facts tell the story better than anyone. Facts take many forms 
and play out in many ways. They are the impacts of decisions made and 
actions taken, whether we like it or not. But it doesn't take long for 
anyone to see this fact: The decisions coming out of the White House 
have followed one overall thought, one guiding ideology. It is not a 
unifying ideology that protects the freedoms and liberties we hold dear 
as Americans. It doesn't safeguard the values of our country or promote 
a vision for a brighter tomorrow and a more prosperous nation for 
future generations. It is a Big Government, socialist ideology. It is a 
vision of transformation. It is a strategy of undoing everything done 
by the previous administration even if those policies were successful.
  Since President Biden's inauguration, every executive order, every 
regulatory rollback, and every message of so-called unity we were once 
promised has been in the spirit of doing the opposite of the previous 
administration, with an emphasis on the ``woke'' transformation of 
America's founding principles. ``But not Trump'' is not a strategy. It 
is not a policy stance. It is a reactionary and misguided posture that 
has plunged our Nation into domestic and international disarray.
  It is a backward approach to implementing an agenda to transform the 
culture and the values of America, and we are seeing the on-the-ground 
effects of this approach in our communities, at our borders, and 
abroad.
  When the singular driving force of your Presidency is simply being 
the opposite of your predecessor, our country faces the consequences of 
that decision. We are facing crises that were preventable, crises that 
are a direct result of policy decisions. This is an uncomfortable and 
inconvenient fact for President Biden, and Democrats don't seem too 
interested in the facts about the consequences of this administration's 
decision, either.
  So let me lay them out. Here are some facts. The Biden administration 
inherited a conditions-based withdrawal strategy on Afghanistan. The 
idea was that we will have a withdrawal of forces that kept some boots 
on the ground to maintain stability and limit chaos and, importantly, 
preserve the progress our troops had made. Instead of continuing this 
conditions-based approach that would protect our servicemembers, 
allies, and innocent civilians, President Biden came up with a new 
plan, one he thought would make for better headlines, rather than 
listening to our commanders on the ground.
  President Trump's plan was to roll people out strategically and 
maintain our assets to prevent attacks on the United States in the 
future. The plan certainly did not involve leaving American citizens 
behind. Instead, President Biden's decision left chaos in its wake. His 
decision left our troops vulnerable and resulted in the death of 13--
13--U.S. servicemembers. The average age of these servicemembers was 22 
years old.

[[Page S6706]]

  His decision has disrespected the sacrifices of more than 800,000 
U.S. veterans who bravely served during the War on Terror. His decision 
gave the Taliban their greatest victory to date and made them one of 
the top 10 most well-equipped militaries in the world, funded by the 
hard-working taxpayers of this country. His decision abandoned innocent 
Americans in a country governed by radical terrorists, and it is clear 
that he ignored the best military advice given to him by his top 
commanders and ordered our troops to put down their weapons and 
retreat.
  President Biden's decision to withdraw from Afghanistan this way gave 
the Taliban everything they wanted: control of the region, our own 
weapons, and, ultimately, a breeding ground for terrorism. The fact of 
the matter is, our country will be facing the consequences of President 
Biden's decision for decades--for decades to come.
  Our country was safer for the past 20 years thanks to the bravest 
fighting forces in the world, our men and women in uniform. 
Counterterrorism is still necessary, but we just made it harder on 
ourselves by not having ground forces and by closing Bagram Airfield.
  The myth from the White House is that our country had no choice but 
that we were beholden to a deal made before January 20. But the policy 
decisions made by President Biden emboldened the Taliban, endangered 
Americans, and encouraged our adversaries.
  Tomorrow, the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold the first 
open hearing--hopefully, one of many--to review President Biden's 
decision and what caused our time in Afghanistan to conclude the way it 
did. The American people deserve facts, and I and the rest of our 
delegation will not rest until we have answers from the people 
involved.
  From abroad to right here at our own southwest border, we are 
witnessing the disastrous effects of the Biden Presidency play out in 
epic proportions. The numbers do not lie.
  Fact: In July and August, apprehensions at the southern border 
surpassed 200,000 each month. That is quadruple the amount from this 
time last year.
  Fact: We have seen recordbreaking numbers of illegal immigrants at 
our southwest border from the day President Biden was inaugurated. Over 
1.3 million people have been apprehended trying to illegally cross our 
southwest border, and that is only the ones we know of. There are 
hundreds of thousands more getting into our country.
  And fact: All of this is a direct result of President Biden's open 
border policies, a reversal from those of the previous administration.
  This is a prime example of the Biden administration putting politics 
over policy. On January 20, his first day in office, President Biden 
announced a suspension of the border wall construction. Now billions of 
taxpayer dollars are being spent to cover the cost of canceling the 
contracts the Federal Government entered into to build the wall. On the 
same day, he terminated the Migrant Protection Protocols policy.
  In February, President Biden terminated the asylum cooperative 
agreements with the Northern Triangle countries established under 
President Trump. Doing away with these agreements has allowed caravans 
to travel thousands of miles through multiple countries to our 
southwest border, without any capacity support from our regional 
partners.
  These decisions have directly contributed to the unprecedented 
numbers of illegal immigrant encounters we have seen, because with 
these decisions, President Biden signaled to the world that anyone 
wanting to leave their country for ours would be admitted to the United 
States of America.
  After months of avoiding the word ``crisis'' to describe the border, 
President Biden recently said: ``We will get the border under 
control.'' To even say he will ``get the border under control'' means 
he acknowledges that it is not under control.
  Well, I guess that is one fact that we can all come to agreement on.
  The facts that Democrats seem to want to ignore most are those that 
deal with our economy. The separation from fact to fiction for our 
friends across the aisle could not be starker than when it comes to the 
American economy.
  It is a fact that inflation is sky high--as high as it has been since 
2010. Despite rising inflation and increasing prices, the President is 
still marching forward with his vision of Big Government--a big 
government welfare State, enacted through the Democrats' reckless tax-
and-spend spree. He wants to create a massive welfare State paid for by 
staggering--and I mean staggering--tax hikes that would destroy 
economic growth.
  And the Democrats are his captive audience. President Biden's America 
is one where our businesses and job creators pay for all. That is not 
``pay your fair share.'' That is wealth distribution.
  He is not interested in boosting the economy and helping Americans. 
He is interested in remaking the system with subsidies and 
entitlements--a welfare state to keep everyone beholden to the 
government--no work requirements, just complete government dependency.
  Our country was founded on freedom. It was founded on opportunity--
the opportunity to work hard and to achieve the American dream. That is 
what this country owes you, not a handout but a hand up.
  The programs laid out in the Democrats' reckless tax-and-spend spree 
are a transparent effort to a woke transformation of the values and 
culture upon which our country was built. If that wasn't bad enough, 
they are going to raise taxes to pay for them, picking from a menu of 
more than 30 new taxes.
  Our businesses, small and large, create jobs and grow the economy. 
Increasing their taxes means they can't spend and invest in their own 
businesses. If they can't expand, they can't create more jobs. In fact, 
it is quite the opposite. Businesses will squeeze inward, cutting 
workers and wages.
  A higher corporate tax rate isn't ``paying their fair share.'' It is 
destroying the blue-collar jobs that have fueled the middle class.
  Why would we ever take pride in the fact that our corporate tax rate 
is higher than China's? When did that become a worthy goal?
  I have an answer for you: It is not. But the terrible proposals to 
offset the cost of this bill just keep on coming.
  The Biden administration wants to require financial institutions to 
report account balances and transactions greater than $600 made by 
Americans to the IRS, the Internal Revenue Service. Any transaction you 
make over $600 will be reported to the IRS. That is every taxpayer in 
this country. Today, only transactions over $10,000, which is a lot of 
money, are reported.
  Yes, that is the same Agency with a long history of data security 
failures. Earlier this year, the confidential tax information of a 
number of prominent Americans leaked--surprisingly, leaked--from the 
IRS and was published in the press.
  The Agency also has a history of singling out certain taxpayers for 
political purposes. You have a rent payment over $600, planning to buy 
airplane tickets over $600--how about a new hunting rifle? a wedding 
dress for your daughter? All of this--any transaction over $600--would 
be sent to the IRS under President Biden's plan. This is Big Brother 
Government at its worst.
  We are talking about routine financial transactions that Americans 
make every day. The IRS has no business monitoring these--none. The IRS 
is intrusive enough as it is. This is something Americans of all 
political stripes should agree on.
  Not only would the IRS be looking over Americans' shoulders, but this 
would place a heavy burden on community banks and credit unions that 
play a key role in providing financial services to rural and minority 
communities. These financial institutions cannot afford to monitor and 
report all this data to the IRS. They can't afford it. It will put many 
of these folks out of business, destroying mainstream American 
communities that rely on all of them in the process.
  But don't just take my word for it. The Independent Community Bankers 
of America's Minority Bank Advisory Council wrote:

       Our primary concern is that the proposal would undermine 
     the critical relationship of trust we foster within the 
     communities we serve--communities prone to distrust of 
     institutions and government agencies. We fear

[[Page S6707]]

     that invasive and indiscriminate account reporting would 
     undermine the policy priority of bringing more people into 
     the banking system and may drive many of those in the system 
     to leave.

  I couldn't have said it better.
  This is one of the most outrageous proposals coming from this 
administration--and there have been a lot of them over the last 9 
months. This is like a shakedown squad coming around to try to get 
every single cent from you that they can.
  So, today, I introduced a bill called the Protecting Financial 
Privacy Act that would proactively prohibit this. My bill prohibits any 
Federal Agency from creating, implementing, or administering a 
financial account information reporting regime that would require 
financial institutions or individuals to report data on financial 
transactions or account balances to the IRS in excess of what is 
already required by the Bank Secrecy Act. The last thing Americans want 
or need is Big Brother looking over their shoulders.

  The President wants to run from the facts. He would rather hide 
behind them and point fingers. The facts, for him, don't fit. But it is 
time for the President to wake up. It is time to stop blaming President 
Trump for disasters that are clearly his own making. It is time to stop 
an entitlement state of our country that Americans don't want. It is 
time for the President to face the facts and listen to the American 
people. He cannot be allowed to deflect responsibility and attempt to 
distract the American people from crises that were predictable and 
preventable, especially when the facts couldn't be clearer.

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