Grassley, Whitehouse Lead Senators in Call to Fully Fund FinCEN’s Anti-Money Laundering Operations

05.17.2022

WASHINGTON - Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) joined Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) to send Senate appropriators a bipartisan request for the maximum possible funding for the Department of Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to support implementation and enforcement of key anti-money laundering and anti-corruption reforms.

"FinCEN is at the tip of the spear in detecting financial schemes that fuel all kinds of illicit activity, from drug trafficking and human exploitation to terrorism. Sen. Whitehouse and I have worked for years to beef up our ability to follow the money and take down money laundering organizations. It's critical that FinCEN has the resources it needs to continue its important mission," Grassley said.

"Senator Grassley and I fought for years for new authority to tackle money laundering by international criminals, drug traffickers, terrorists, and kleptocrats. That work led to the 2021 defense bill, where we passed into law powerful new tools to trace dirty money through complicated financial schemes and hold those responsible to account. Now, we can put our new authority to work with funding that empowers FinCEN to go after kleptocrats, drug traffickers, and other bad actors around the globe. That will be a huge win for the rule of law," Whitehouse said.

FinCEN is the bureau within the Department charged with cracking down on money laundering, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes around the globe. The senators call for funding to help FinCEN deploy new authority under the Corporate Transparency Act and the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 to root out transnational criminals, drug cartels, terrorists and authoritarian oligarchs - like Vladimir Putin and his corrupt cronies. Grassley and Whitehouse were among those who led passage of those bills.

Joining Grassley and Whitehouse's letter are Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kirsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).

Full text of the Senator's letter can be found HERE.