Washington D.C. (June 14, 2024) | This week, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (GA-11) met with former Speaker of the U.S. House, Newt Gingrich, to discuss policy issues. A legendary Georgia statesman, Speaker Gingrich is a wealth of knowledge for members of Congress.

This week, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (GA-11) reintroduced the Financial Reporting Threshold Modernization Act to raise the currency transaction Report (CTR) threshold from $10,000 to $60,000, and ensure it is periodically adjusted for inflation. Updating this threshold will reduce the compliance and filing burden for the smallest of our country’s community banks and credit unions.

“When Congress passed the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, they did so with the clear intent to capture large and unusual transactions. Due to the forces of inflation, the $10,000 threshold that the Department of Treasury implemented in the 1970s now captures ordinary things like used car purchases and small business cash deposits. It’s long past time for Treasury to update their BSA thresholds for the 21st century.

My bill simply raises the current threshold from $10,000 to $60,000 to reduce major regulatory burdens on small community banks and credit unions. Raising this threshold will also result in increased privacy for banking customers, while not jeopardizing law enforcement’s ability to detect and investigate possible crimes.” 

BACKGROUND

Summary of the Financial Reporting Threshold Modernization Act: 

• Raises the Currency Transaction Report (CTR) threshold raised from $10,000 to $60,000.
• Raises the Suspicious Transaction Report (SAR) threshold from $5,000 to $10,000 for financial institutions. 
• Raises Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) from $2,000 to $3,000 for money services businesses (MSBs)
• Makes continuing, periodic adjustment to inflation.

This week, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (GA-11) supported critical legislation that strengthens our military, deters our adversaries and ends Democratic efforts to inject wokeness into our military. Additionally, Rep. Loudermilk supported a crucial legislative effort that takes a significant step in maintaining the integrity of the Congressional oversight process by holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress. Bills are as follows: 

H.R. 8070 – Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 – Rep. Mike Rogers (AL-3)

The FY25 NDAA builds on the wins House Republicans secured last year to strengthen our military, deter our adversaries, and end Democratic efforts to inject wokeness into the military. This year’s bill focuses resources on improving the lives of our servicemembers, and their families, who sacrifice so much to protect our nation. It takes important steps to address the security threats America faces from adversaries including China, Iran, and foreign terrorist organizations. Critically, it supports the continued modernization of our nuclear deterrence, invests in our naval fleet, boosts innovation, and revitalizes our defense industrial base.

• Fully funds our national defense while cutting costs and improving efficiency.

• • Authorizes $895.2 billion for national defense discretionary programs, an increase of $9 billion over the FY24 enacted level, and in line with the spending level set by the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
  • Saves taxpayers $30 billion by cutting inefficient programs, obsolete weapons systems, and unnecessary Pentagon bureaucracy.

• Improves servicemember quality of life to address military recruitment, retention, and readiness.

• • Authorizes a 19.5% pay raise for junior enlisted servicemembers and supports a 4.5% pay raise for all other servicemembers.
  • Addresses chronic underfunding of housing maintenance to address poor conditions like sewage overflows, gas leaks, and mold.
  • Ensures access to medical care, including mental health services and specialty providers.
  • Increases access to childcare by authorizing $204 million for construction of new childcare centers.
  • Supports military spouses by making it easier to find and maintain employment.

• The FY24 NDAA (P.L. 118-311) banned critical race theory in the military, gutted DEI at the Department of Defense (DoD), and included the Parents Bill of Rights to ensure military parents’ right to review curriculum, meet with teachers, and provide consent before any medical exams or screenings at school. The FY25 bill builds on those gains to combat the Biden Administration’s radical, woke ideology and restores the focus of our military on lethality.

• • Requires merit-based promotions.
  • Ends affirmative action at service academies.
  • Prohibits DoD from establishing or maintaining any office or committee charged with recommending or implementing DEI policies at DoD schools.
  • Prohibits DoD from contracting with advertising firms like NewsGuard that blacklist conservative new sources.
  • Prevents a military Green New Deal.

• Deters Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aggression.

• • Extends the Pacific Deterrence Initiative to enhance U.S. deterrence and defense posture in the Indo-Pacific region and authorizes over $650 million in INDOPACOM Commander priorities left unfunded in the Biden budget.
  • Increases funding for innovative new technologies needed to deter the CCP, including hypersonics and AI.
  • Prevents Chinese espionage by prohibiting contracting with the subsidiaries of any Chinese civil-military companies to include any subsidiaries, the sharing of sensitive missile defense information with China, and Chinese nationals from being admitted to nuclear facilities.
  • Bolsters Taiwan’s defense and supports our Indo-Pacific allies and partners.

• Increases oversight and requires accountability from the Biden Administration.

• • Ensures the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter meets performance requirements.
  • Cracks down on contractor waste by cutting over $4.3 billion in weapons programs that have not met development milestones or are experiencing excessive cost growth.
  • Enhances congressional oversight of DoD programs.

• Improves military readiness, strengthens our industrial base, and supports the deployment of innovative and new technologies to ensure our warfighters are prepared for whatever lies ahead.

• • Blocks the Biden Administration’s plan to reduce the number of U.S. Special Forces.
  • Counters adversarial drone warfare through the establishment of a Drone Corps as a basic branch of the Army.
  • Provides certainty for the Defense Industrial Base, including the establishment of acquisition thresholds for American made batteries.
  • Blocks the Biden Administration’s request to retire two battle force ships with remaining service life, in addition to certain aircraft.

• Provides unprecedented levels of support for, our ally, Israel, and the resources necessary to counter our adversaries.

• • Authorizes full funding for joint U.S.-Israel cooperative missile defense programs (Iron Dome, Arrow, David’s Sling).
  • Requires DoD to asses pre-launch missile defeat capabilities to eliminate missile threats from Iran and their terrorist proxies.
  • Prohibits DoD from providing security assistance funding to the Taliban or Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
  • Extends the prohibition on closing Guantanamo Bay and moving terrorists to prisons in the U.S.

• Strengthens our nuclear posture, improves missile defense, and accelerates delivery of space capabilities.

• • Fully funds modernization of the nuclear triad and invests in nuclear sea-launched cruise missiles.
  • Continues support for investments in innovative commercial space solutions that would increase our capacity and resilience in space.

• Continues DoD support of law enforcement operations along our southwest and maritime borders.

• • Fully funds deployment of National Guard troops at the southwest border.
  • Prohibits DoD from using disaster and humanitarian relief funds to house refugees in the U.S.
  • Increases funding by $20 million for DoD counternarcotics activities.

H. Res. 1292 – Recommending that the House of Representatives find United States Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in contempt of Congress for refusal to comply with a subpoena duly issued by the Committee on the Judiciary – Rep. Jim Jordan (OH-04)

• In early February, Special Counsel Robert Hur released his report on President Biden’s mishandling of classified materials after documents were discovered in his home and office in 2022.
• On February 27, the Judiciary and Oversight Committees issued identical subpoenas to AG Garland compelling production of certain documents and records, including audio and video recordings, of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interviews with President Biden and his ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer.

• • Audio tapes are the best evidence and will ensure that the transcripts provided to the committees accurately reflect the true content of interviews.
  • The White House has recently edited President Biden’s mistakes by labeling them “inaudible” in transcripts; the Committee Members must be able to assess for themselves that the transcript accurately reflects the true content of the interviews. The Biden Administration has reportedly made edits to Biden’s transcripts.
  • These subpoenas were issued for several reasons, including as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry, to inform legislative reforms to the Department of Justice (DOJ’s) use of special counsels in investigations of current and former Presidents, and to determine whether legislation is needed to ensure that federal agencies properly account for records and documents after an executive branch official leaves office.

• To date, DOJ has refused to produce the subpoenaed audio recordings, choosing instead to obstruct and delay.  Finally, on the morning of the markup of the contempt resolutions in the Judiciary and Oversight Committees, President Biden asserted executive privilege over the recordings.

• • President Biden waived any potential assertion of executive privilege over the Hur interviews when he released the transcript.  During Watergate, a federal district court held that President Nixon waived any claim of executive privilege over certain audio recordings because he had already published transcripts of the conversations.
  • President Biden has not set forth any valid basis for invoking executive privilege.  There is no claim that the audio contains confidential communications between the President and his advisors (presidential communications privilege) or that confidentiality is required to protect pre-decisional and deliberative communications within Executive Branch agencies (deliberative process privilege).

• Article I of the Constitution vests in Congress a “broad” and “indispensable” power to conduct oversight and investigations that “encompasses inquiries into the administration of existing laws, studies of proposed laws, and surveys in our social, economic or political system for the purpose of enabling Congress to remedy them.”
• Criminal contempt of Congress, established in 2 U.S.C. § 194, is a criminal process by which the House can seek to hold a witness accountable for failing to comply with a committee subpoena. Holding an individual in criminal contempt protects Congress’ oversight and investigative functions by compelling compliance through the threat of penalties, punishing individuals who willfully fail to comply, and deterring future noncompliance. 
• This resolution finds AG Garland in criminal contempt under 2 U.S.C. 192 and 194.

This week, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (GA-11), on the 7-year-anniversary of the Congressional baseball shooting, gave remarks about his harrowing experience from that day. Along with his House Republican colleagues, Rep. Loudermilk gave thanks to the Capitol Police and Alexandria Police Dept officers who acted swiftly to eliminate the threat and protect members of Congress.

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In case you missed it, this week, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (GA-11) demanded clarity from Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra about agency guidance that improperly conflates immigration status with protected characteristics like race and national origin in a House Financial Services Committee hearing.

Regulation B (ECOA) allows lenders to consider immigration status as it relates to a lender’s right to repayment, but the CFPB is inventing a new liability for lenders by allowing immigration status to serve as a proxy for protected characteristics like race and national origin. The result in practice is a chilling effect on sound, risk-based lending practices. 

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This week, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (GA-11) joined Fox Business' The Evening Edit and highlighted the newly released footage of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claiming responsibility while discussing the absence of the National Guard on January 6th. 

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Just The News:

A pair of Republican lawmakers on Monday slammed the January 6 committee's report on the Capitol riot, after footage of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi taking the blame for the security failure revealed errors in the committee's findings. 

Pelosi said in the video that she "takes responsibility" for not preparing better for the riot, where thousands of supporters of former President Donald Trump interrupted the certification of the electoral college votes after the 2020 presidential election. 

The former speaker organized a committee to investigate the riot, but House Republicans, led by Georgia Rep. Barry Loudermilk have claimed the Democrat-led Jan. 6 committee withheld crucial evidence from the public. 

Fox News:

A previously unreleased video taken on Jan. 6, 2021 shows then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., saying she takes "responsibility" for law enforcement's lack of preparedness when a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol that day.

A tweet on X by a House Republican panel contains video that appears to show a frustrated Pelosi being evacuated from the Capitol complex and in intense conversation with Chief of Staff Terri McCullough about how the evacuation was conducted.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., chair of the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, accused the now-defunct House January 6 select committee of trying to hide evidence that contradicted a certain narrative.

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Fox News:

EXCLUSIVE: Nearly two dozen state financial officers sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., late Wednesday demanding he take up a bill prohibiting the Biden administration from implementing a program that tracks private investment transactions.

Twenty-three officials in 19 states crafted a letter that demands a bill from Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., the Protecting Investors’ Personally Identifiable Information Act, be immediately acted upon.

Loudermilk’s bill, H.R. 4551, formally prohibits the SEC from requiring personally identifiable information to be collected under the SEC’s new program and "for other purposes."

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