Message from Congressman Scott Fitzgerald

Good afternoon, everyone!

Congress is in recess this week and I am back in the district meeting with a number of community stakeholders – it feels great as always to be back in Wisconsin!

Last week, my bill, the Keeping Violent Offenders Off Our Streets Act,  passed on the House floor with strong bipartisan support. This bill will protect our communities by defining bail bonds as insurance products for the purposes of federal insurance fraud crimes and by subjecting charitable bail funds to state insurance regulation. These changes will add a much-needed layer of transparency and accountability to bail funds, that up until now, have been operating in the shadows without oversight. I was grateful to see my bill pass—next stop is the Senate.

Last week, I was shocked by the latest data released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to Congress. The data revealed that there are OVER 650,000 noncitizens with criminal histories that remain in the U.S. Of that figure over 13,000 of these individuals have been convicted of homicide. The other crimes on this rap sheet include kidnapping, sexual assault, burglary, and drug crimes. It’s utterly horrifying that President Biden and border czar Kamala Harris have allowed this crisis to spiral so far out of control.  

ICE released this data in response to an inquiry from my colleague Rep. Tony Gonzales who represents part of Texas—an area that’s been hit particularly hard by the border crisis. But Americans across the country understand that the consequences of the border crisis have reached communities both near and far. We need commonsense border reform like House Republicans passed in H.R. 2, the Secure Our Border Act.

Last week, I also led a letter to the FDIC regarding the agency’s final rule amending Part 328 of the FDIC's regulations. Among other things, the rule establishes and requires the display of the FDIC official digital sign on bank websites, mobile applications, and certain IDI automated teller machines and other similar devices. The rule also requires the use of disclosures differentiating deposits and non-deposit products across all banking channels.

These requirements represent new obligations for banks that require substantial technological development to implement before the upcoming January I, 2025 deadline—a concern several banking institutions have expressed.

Given that the rule appears originally designed to provide approximately one year for banks and service providers to implement the rule, the fact that the FDIC took almost half of that time to issue FAQs that have already been revised once, and the fact that the FDIC has yet to schedule the two promised additional webinars to provide industry with further guidance, my colleagues and I expressed in the letter a clear need to delay the compliance by one year. This delay will afford banks the time they need to make the changes the FDIC has requested.

That wraps the congressional updates from last week. 

Have a great week everyone and thanks for reading along!  

-Scott

That's a wrap for this week's eNewsletter! Follow me on Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date on my work for the 5th District of Wisconsin.

Sincerely,

Scott Fitzgerald
Member of Congress