HR-1799-119
Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 478.
Sponsored by Barry Loudermilk (R-GA)
What it does
This bill would increase the dollar amounts above which banks and other financial institutions must file Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs) and Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). It would also raise the threshold for when a business must register with FinCEN as a money services business. All three thresholds would be automatically adjusted every five years to keep pace with inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index. Additionally, the bill would require the Treasury Department to review and update the forms and requirements related to domestic and foreign currency transactions and anti-money laundering programs, and would extend through 2031 the requirement that FinCEN's director testify annually before Congress.
Who benefits
Banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions that would file fewer mandatory reports, reducing their compliance workload and costs. Small businesses — particularly cash-intensive ones like restaurants, laundromats, and retail shops — that currently trigger reporting requirements on routine transactions. Money services businesses (check cashers, currency exchangers, remittance services) that may no longer need to register with FinCEN. Compliance officers and legal departments at financial firms who would spend less time on routine filings. Consumers whose ordinary large cash transactions would be less likely to generate a federal report.
Who is hurt
Federal law enforcement agencies — including the IRS, DEA, and FBI — that rely on CTRs and SARs as investigative leads for tax evasion, drug trafficking, and terrorism financing cases. FinCEN itself, which would receive fewer data points for its financial intelligence database. State and local law enforcement that access FinCEN data for criminal investigations. Victims of financial crimes that might go undetected with fewer reports filed. Anti-money laundering (AML) compliance vendors and software providers whose services may be less in demand.
Supporters argue
Supporters argue that the current CTR threshold of $10,000 has not been adjusted since 1970, meaning inflation has eroded its real value by roughly 85%, causing millions of routine, legitimate transactions to trigger federal reports that were never intended to capture ordinary commerce. They contend that the resulting flood of low-value reports overwhelms FinCEN analysts, making it harder — not easier — to identify genuinely suspicious activity, and that reducing the noise in the system would improve the quality of financial intelligence available to law enforcement.
Opponents argue
Opponents argue that raising reporting thresholds would create a larger blind spot for law enforcement at a time when money laundering, fentanyl trafficking, and terrorism financing remain serious threats. They contend that the $10,000 threshold, while nominally unchanged, has proven effective precisely because it captures a wide range of transactions, and that structuring crimes — where criminals deliberately break up deposits to stay below the threshold — would become easier and harder to detect if the bar is raised significantly.
Constitutional context
Congress has broad authority to regulate financial institutions and require reporting under the Commerce Clause (Art. I, §8, cl. 3), as financial transactions are quintessentially interstate economic activity under Wickard v. Filburn (1942). The bill does not raise significant constitutional concerns, as it modifies existing statutory thresholds rather than creating new agency authority. Post-Loper Bright (2024), any Treasury rulemaking implementing the updated thresholds would face independent judicial review rather than deference, but the bill's direction to Treasury is narrow and specific.
Checks and balances
The executive branch (Treasury/FinCEN) gains modest administrative flexibility through updated thresholds, but Congress retains oversight through the extended annual testimony requirement for the FinCEN director and the mandated Treasury review and report.
Historical precedent
The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 originally established the $10,000 CTR threshold; Congress has periodically debated but rarely enacted threshold adjustments, making this a relatively uncommon but not unprecedented type of modification to BSA reporting requirements.