[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 124 (Monday, July 21, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H3517-H3518]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
OFAC LICENSURE FOR INVESTIGATORS ACT
Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (H.R. 1450) to require the Office of Foreign Assets
Control to develop a program under which private-sector firms may
receive a license to conduct nominal financial transactions in
furtherance of the firms' investigations, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1450
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``OFAC Licensure for
Investigators Act''.
SEC. 2. SENDING AND RECEIVING OF NOMINAL AMOUNTS.
(a) In General.--The Director of the Office of Foreign
Assets Control shall, not later than 1 year after the date of
the enactment of this section, establish a pilot program
under which a private sector firm may receive a license to
conduct nominal financial transactions in furtherance of the
firm's investigations.
(b) Coordination.--When establishing and carrying out the
pilot program required under subsection (a), the Director of
the Office of Foreign Assets Control shall coordinate with
the Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network for
the purposes of supporting activities of the Financial Crimes
Enforcement Network Exchange, as described in section 310(d)
of title 31 of the United States Code.
(c) Reporting on Activities.--Each private sector firm that
receives a license described under subsection (a) shall
submit a detailed monthly report to the Director of the
Office of Foreign Assets Control on the activities of the
firm conducted under such license.
(d) Report to Congress.--
(1) In general.--On the date that is 1 year after the date
on which the pilot program is established under this section,
and annually thereafter until the end of the 1-year period
beginning on the date the pilot program is terminated, the
Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control shall submit
a report to the Committees on Financial Services and Foreign
Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Committees on
Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and Foreign Relations of
the Senate containing--
(A) the number of licenses requested under the pilot
program;
(B) the number of licenses granted under the pilot program;
and
(C) a broad discussion of the utility of the pilot program.
(2) Classified briefing.--After submission of each report
required under paragraph (1), the Director of the Office of
Foreign Assets Control shall provide the Committees on
Financial Services and Foreign Affairs of the House of
Representatives and the Committees on Banking, Housing, and
Urban Affairs and Foreign Relations of the Senate with a
classified briefing containing--
(A) additional detail on the applicants for a license under
the pilot program;
(B) identification of the firms granted a license;
(C) information on the operation of the pilot program,
including how long each license lasted and the personnel
needed to manage the pilot program;
(D) information gleaned by the Office of Foreign Assets
Control from running the pilot program;
(E) the utility of that information;
(F) any obstacles to the operation or utility of the pilot
program; and
(G) any recommendations for improving or extending the
pilot program.
(e) Termination.--The pilot program established by the
Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control under
subsection (a) shall terminate on the date that is 5 years
after the date on which the Director of the Office of Foreign
Assets Control establishes such program.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Arkansas (Mr. Hill) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arkansas.
General Leave
Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks
and include extraneous material on the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Arkansas?
There was no objection.
Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1450, the OFAC
Licensure for Investigators Act.
When it comes to combating illicit finance, effective public-private
partnerships are critical. Tracking and disrupting sophisticated crime
networks requires cooperation between our government and private-sector
experts.
These partnerships play an integral role in our ability to safeguard
the U.S. financial system and our national security.
Mrs. Beatty's commonsense bill authorizes private-sector firms,
operating under an OFAC license, to conduct nominal transactions with
sanctioned entities, allowing them to more effectively trace funds and
uncover illicit networks during financial crime investigations.
The gentlewoman and I agree that while the private sector can provide
a helping hand in tracking down bad actors, it is ultimately the
government's responsibility to provide clear legal guidance and
guardrails to support their efforts.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to join me in supporting this
bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1450, the OFAC Licensure for
Investigators Act, sponsored by Representative Beatty.
This bill would require the Secretary of the Treasury to develop a
pilot program at the Office of Foreign Assets Control, OFAC, by which
private-sector firms like blockchain analytics firms or the financial
intelligence units within correspondent banks could receive a license
to send or receive nominal financial transactions to and through
sanctioned entities. These small amounts could yield big details that
could further our understanding of what is happening and by whom in
sanctions evasion and money laundering investigations.
We need what this bill proposes because as the global anti-money
laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regime has become
increasingly effective in detecting and deterring the abuse of the
financial system, bad actors have often moved their transactions into
illicit markets and spaces or used technologies and methods that are
harder to track.
Investigative efforts by firms and in-house functions dedicated to
tracking down these attempts to avoid detection help banks and
governments, among others, to identify bad actors, accounts, and
typologies used by criminals and terrorists. They are limited, however,
in how far they can see into these dirty operations.
One of those limitations in the visibility into the financial
transactions of bad actors is due to sanctions, which appropriately and
forcefully prevents parties from engaging with targets of sanctions.
Investigators, whether in private firms or large bank intelligence
units, must stop a transaction after finding evidence that suggests
that a wallet, account, or address may be associated with a sanctioned
person. With the specific licenses envisioned by this bill, OFAC would
closely manage narrow and explicit exceptions to its sanctions programs
to allow investigators to engage with sanctioned persons in order to
gain more visibility into the opaque networks and practices.
Again, OFAC would be limited to allowing only nominal amounts for
such traceable transfers. The bill also ensures that there is robust
oversight of this process, requiring the recipients of these specific
licenses to report to OFAC monthly on their findings. This is similar
in concept to the keep-open letters that government officials provide
to financial institutions to keep open suspicious accounts so the
government can watch the transactions and follow the money.
That is because H.R. 1450 would help investigators better follow the
money to make their sanctions and money laundering investigations more
fruitful for the United States Government, banks, and others that
employ such services.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve
the balance of my time.
[[Page H3518]]
Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I include the Congressional Budget
Office estimate for this bill in the Record.
H.R. 1450, OFAC LICENSURE FOR INVESTIGATORS ACT, AS REPORTED BY THE
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES ON MARCH 27, 2025
------------------------------------------------------------------------
By fiscal year, millions of
dollars--
-------------------------------
2025 2025-2030 2025-2035
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Direct Spending (Outlays)............... 0 0 0
Revenues................................ 0 0 0
Increase or Decrease (-) in the Deficit. 0 0 0
Spending Subject to Appropriation 0 4 5
(Outlays)..............................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Increases net direct spending in any of the four
consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2036? No.
Increases on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive
10-year periods beginning in 2036? No.
Statutory pay-as-you-go procedures apply? No.
Mandate Effects:
Contains intergovernmental mandate? No.
Contains private-sector mandate? No.
H.R. 1450 would require the Office of Foreign Assets
Control (OFAC) to establish a pilot program under which it
could license private firms to conduct small financial
transactions with sanctioned entities in order to collect
data and intelligence on those entities. Those transactions
might otherwise be prohibited because some parties to the
transactions are subject to sanctions. The bill would require
OFAC to report to the Congress on its implementation of that
program. The authority to issue licenses and the reporting
requirement would expire five years after OFAC begins issuing
those licenses.
Based on information from OFAC, CBO expects the office
would need five employees to implement and administer the
pilot program starting in fiscal year 2026. CBO estimates the
compensation and operating expenses for those employees and
the cost of the reporting requirements would amount to $5
million over the 2025-2035 period. Such spending would be
subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Emma Uebelhor.
The estimate was reviewed by Christina Hawley Anthony, Deputy
Director of Budget Analysis.
Phillip L. Swagel,
Director, Congressional Budget Office.
Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman
from Iowa (Mr. Nunn) to talk about the aspects of this bill from his
perspective of being a former intelligence officer.
Mr. NUNN of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the
bipartisan OFAC Licensure for Investigators Act, which I am proud to
co-lead with my friend on the other side of the aisle, the
Representative from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty).
Terrorist networks like Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the
Russian Mafia, and North Korean cybercriminals are no longer relying
solely on traditional cash couriers or shell companies. They now
exploit financial platforms, adopting increasingly sophisticated
approaches to fund acts of terrorism.
These organizations adapt quickly, using every loophole in the global
financial system to mask the origin and the destination of their funds.
Fortunately, the United States is home to some of the world's most
advanced financial technology firms and data analytics companies.
Just this spring, the FBI, working hand in hand with blockchain
forensics firms, seized $1.5 billion in stolen digital assets from the
North Korea-affiliated Lazarus Group. That is why I am so proud to be
able to work together on legislation which establishes a pilot program
within the Department of the Treasury to enable private-sector firms to
collaborate with Treasury to enhance our investigative leads. These
teams, working together, fusing the best information, help provide a
vital tool in combating the evolving threats posed by terrorism.
I thank Representative Beatty and the House Financial Services
Committee for their leadership.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from
Ohio (Mrs. Beatty), who is also the ranking member of the Subcommittee
on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial
Institutions, and is the sponsor of this bill.
Mrs. BEATTY. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Waters for yielding.
I rise in support of my bipartisan bill, H.R. 1450, the OFAC,
Licensure for Investigators Act, which I am very proud to co-lead with
my colleague, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Nunn).
This bill, Mr. Speaker, requires the Secretary of the Treasury to
develop a special licensing pilot program within the Office of
Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, and it will be administered by
the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
This pilot project would grant private-sector firms a temporary
specific license to conduct nominal financial transactions with
sanctioned entities to assist with law enforcement investigations.
These private firms would be, for example, as you have heard, Mr.
Speaker, blockchain analytics firms or the financial intelligence units
within corresponding banks.
The commonsense legislation seeks to enhance the tools at our
disposal to investigate sanctioned individuals and entities and to hold
bad actors accountable, and that is very important.
This concept is similar to, as you have heard by our ranking member,
Mr. Speaker, a keep-open letter, which is when the government asks a
bank to keep a suspicious illicit account open. As it stands now,
private financial firms are currently limited to their capacity to
engage with sanctioned entities due to a robust sanction regime.
That also means that it is impossible to access data about bad
actors' networks and methods, intelligence that would be of great
assistance to law enforcement agents, to government, to consumers of
their products, and the financial industry overall, Mr. Speaker.
So by giving OFAC the authority to tailor the parameters of the
specific licensure pilot program, this legislation enhances our
investigatory toolbox while guaranteeing essential protections.
For example, the specific license would be well-defined and narrowly
applied, ensuring that private firms only conduct nominal transactions,
for example, $5, $10, so they can collect better data and intelligence.
Lastly, the program would have strict oversight, requiring that
licensure recipients provide detailed monthly reports to OFAC on their
activities and findings under the license.
This innovative bill harnesses the vast resources of the private
sector and allows the Federal Government to work collaboratively with
financial firms to further our national security goals.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join our chairman, our ranking
member, and my colleague, Mr. Nunn, in supporting this bill.
{time} 1830
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, this bill, H.R. 1450, the OFAC Licensure for
Investigators Act from Representative Beatty would develop a program at
the Department of the Treasury that would allow financial crime
investigators, including those at the Office of Foreign Assets Control,
that is OFAC, to better trace and understand the efforts by bad actors
to evade sanctions and launder funds. By allowing nominal amounts to be
directed through certain accounts with stringent U.S. Government
oversight, banks, government agencies, and others seeking knowledge
about how these bad actors behave and are connected will benefit. This
bill will help to keep our financial system and national security
secure.
I, again, urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back
the balance of my time.
Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote, and I yield
back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Weber of Texas). The question is on the
motion offered by the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill) that the House
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 1450.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________