WASHINGTON, DC – Last night, Congress unveiled its long-negotiated omnibus spending bill to fund the federal government for fiscal year 2023, which includes $190.2 million for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). This figure represents an 18 percent boost to FinCEN, the bureau of the Treasury Department that serves as the nation’s financial intelligence unit and is responsible for crafting, implementing, and enforcing U.S. anti-money laundering reforms.
Chief among these reforms is the timely implementation of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), which would end the abuse of anonymous U.S. shell companies. FinCEN published the draft second rule for the CTA last week, but at least one additional rulemaking remains before the law can be fully implemented. The agency is also considering landmark reforms – prioritized by the White House in the first ever U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption – to tackle money laundering in the $50 trillion real estate and $11 trillion private investment markets. Congress is slated to vote on the omnibus legislation later this week.
Erica Hanichak, Government Affairs Director of the FACT Coalition, said in a statement:
Notes to the Editor:
- Click here for the consensus Fiscal Year 2023 spending bill, released last night.
- Click here for the President’s discretionary spending request from February this year, which pressed for $210.3 million for FinCEN, or a 31 percent increase over last year’s enacted levels, for the bureau (p. 98).
- Bipartisan members have publicly supported significant funding increases for FinCEN. See bipartisan letters in the House led by Rep. Spanberger (D-VA) and the Senate by Sen. Whitehouse (D-RI) and Sen. Grassley (R-IA).
- FinCEN received one-time emergency appropriations as part of two Ukraine packages earlier this year, as a means to backstop efforts to “freeze and seize” Russian oligarch assets.
- A 2022 Transparency International report, “Up to the Task?: State of Play in Countries Committed to Freezing and Seizing Russian Dirty Money,” demonstrates how U.S. funding for FinCEN stacks up against that of U.S. allies.
- FACT Sheet for Congress on Emergency Treasury Funding Needs re: Ukraine Crisis and FY2023.