Arizona Republican Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) has joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers seeking a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into federal law enforcement surveillance of Americans’ bank accounts and financial records.
Biggs’ office announced Tuesday that he joined U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Reps. Warren Davidson (R-OH) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) in asking the congressional watchdog to examine several methods used by federal agencies to obtain or monitor financial information. The lawmakers sent their five-page request to Acting Comptroller General Orice W. Brown on Aug. 10.
The letter calls for a comprehensive review of surveillance practices involving the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
“Americans’ financial records can reveal deeply sensitive information including their religion; the political causes and non-profit organizations they support, including through membership; the doctors’ offices and clinics where they are treated; where they travel and with whom; and countless other private personal details,” the lawmakers wrote.
They added that existing authorities allowing government access to financial records have, in some instances, been “abused or stretched beyond their intended purpose.”
The lawmakers asked the GAO to examine four areas, beginning with federal compliance with notification requirements under the Right to Financial Privacy Act.
The letter states that federal law enforcement agencies can obtain existing records from specific bank accounts through subpoenas, including subpoenas that do not require prior judicial approval. Under the Right to Financial Privacy Act, customers generally must receive notice when the federal government obtains their financial records, subject to statutory exceptions and delayed-notice procedures.
The lawmakers cited an October 2024 Justice Department response included with their letter. The DOJ said its Justice Manual directs prosecutors to follow Right to Financial Privacy Act procedures when seeking customer financial records without alerting an investigative target and said notice requirements are addressed through department training. The department also acknowledged that it does not compile statistics on notices provided under the Right to Financial Privacy Act and Wiretap Act, leaving it unable to tell lawmakers how many individuals had received such notices during the preceding three years.
Biggs and the other lawmakers asked the GAO to determine how consistently federal agencies comply with the notice requirements and how many Americans may remain unaware that their records were obtained.
The second area involves the FBI’s use of National Security Letters (NSLs), to obtain historical financial information without prior judicial review.
The FBI has long had authority under the Right to Financial Privacy Act to issue National Security Letters for certain financial records. The lawmakers asked the GAO to determine whether the bureau is following procedures governing nondisclosure orders attached to those requests.
Under FBI procedures adopted following the USA Freedom Act, a nondisclosure requirement must be supported by an individualized written determination rather than automatically accompanying every National Security Letter. The FBI also established procedures for reviewing and terminating those restrictions when circumstances no longer justify them.
The lawmakers asked the GAO to calculate the percentage of financial-record NSLs issued with nondisclosure requirements, determine how many remain secret after a three-year review point, and examine whether financial institutions receive required notices when those restrictions end.
Their third concern involves real-time monitoring orders known as financial “hotwatches.”
According to the congressional letter, federal agencies have used the All Writs Act to obtain court orders requiring financial institutions to notify the government when new transactions occur in targeted accounts. The lawmakers wrote that Congress has not enacted a statute explicitly authorizing real-time financial surveillance and asked the GAO to determine how frequently the Justice Department seeks the orders, what legal justifications it uses, and what types of financial institutions have been required to comply.
The group also asked the GAO to investigate how the FBI and FinCEN use the Bank Secrecy Act and Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) to conduct searches of financial-institution records.
Banks and other covered financial institutions use SARs to report transactions suspected of being connected to criminal or otherwise suspicious activity. FinCEN describes the SAR system as a mechanism for providing financial intelligence to law enforcement, regulators, and other authorized government agencies.
Federal rules also make SARs confidential. FinCEN guidance states that a financial institution generally may not tell a person involved in a reported transaction that a SAR was filed.
The lawmakers said those authorities serve legitimate law enforcement purposes when banks independently identify suspicious transactions, including potential money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion, and human trafficking. They asked the GAO to examine allegations that the FBI and FinCEN have also directed financial institutions to conduct broader searches across customer databases using criteria supplied by the government.
They specifically asked investigators to determine whether informal search directives have circumvented the particularized identifier requirements contained in Section 314(a) of the USA Patriot Act and to quantify how many otherwise-unsuspected customers may have had their records included in such searches.
“Given the potential for systemic overreach and the erosion of Americans’ privacy, it is critical that Congress and the public obtain a transparent accounting of these programs,” the four lawmakers wrote.
They requested that the GAO issue a formal report examining the practices and recommend potential legislative or executive changes involving judicial oversight, financial privacy, and notice requirements.
The request continues Biggs’ broader push to limit federal surveillance authorities. In March, the Arizona congressman introduced the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act of 2026, legislation aimed separately at reforming surveillance conducted under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to visit Arizona on Wednesday and Thursday, with stops including a Casa Grande appearance alongside House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ-06). The tentative itinerary, provided exclusively to AZ Free News by Treasury Department officials, also includes meetings with manufacturers, business leaders, and community bankers.
Bessent is scheduled to travel to the state on August 5 and 6 to discuss the Trump administration’s economic agenda and efforts to strengthen the integrity of the nation’s financial system, Treasury officials said.
The visit will include a tour of a manufacturing facility in Casa Grande with Johnson and Ciscomani. The three officials are also expected to participate in an economic roundtable with Arizona business leaders.
The Treasury Department had not yet publicly identified the manufacturing facility as of Monday night.
The administration plans to use the event to highlight the effects of the tax and business provisions it refers to as the Working Families Tax Cuts, including incentives for domestic manufacturing and capital investment.
The tax provisions were enacted as part of Public Law 119-21, which President Donald Trump signed on July 4, 2025. The law permanently extended several provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and created temporary federal income-tax deductions for qualified tips and overtime compensation.
The law also allows businesses to immediately deduct qualifying research and development costs and the cost of certain equipment and machinery. It provides accelerated deductions for qualifying investments in new and expanded manufacturing facilities, according to a White House summary.
Arizona Republican lawmakers and Governor Hobbs reached a bipartisan budget agreement in June that eliminated state income taxes on qualified tips and overtime, increased the standard deduction, and added other tax provisions tied to the federal law. Republican legislative leaders described Arizona as the only state to fully adopt the federal tax package at the state level.
🚨FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Arizona Becomes Only State in the Nation to Deliver Historic Trump Tax Cuts As Part of Bipartisan FY 2027 Budget Agreement
The White House, citing a National Association of Manufacturers analysis, said the law’s manufacturing provisions sustained an estimated 119,000 Arizona jobs, $22 billion in state economic output, and $11 billion in wages.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the law would increase federal deficits by approximately $3.4 trillion from 2025 through 2034, excluding macroeconomic and debt-service effects. The CBO attributed the increase to an estimated $4.5 trillion reduction in revenues, partially offset by a $1.1 trillion reduction in direct spending.
During a separate engagement, Bessent is expected to meet with community bankers from across Arizona alongside Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould.
Bessent and Gould reportedly plan to discuss the administration’s efforts to reduce regulatory burdens on community banks and expand their ability to finance local businesses and economic development.
Reducing regulatory and supervisory burdens on community banks has been one of Gould’s stated priorities. The agency said in May that it had begun tailoring examinations according to a bank’s size, complexity, and risk profile, while giving smaller institutions greater flexibility to use a simplified capital framework.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has also revised its model-risk guidance and narrowed the scope of information-technology and cybersecurity examinations for community banks, according to an agency announcement.
“Community banks are anchors of local economies, providing essential banking services and small business lending that helps power job creation,” Gould said in the announcement.
The Arizona meeting is also expected to address the administration’s campaign against fraud, identity theft, money laundering, and other illicit activity involving the financial system.
Trump issued an executive order in May directing Treasury and federal banking regulators to strengthen customer-identification requirements and consider changes to regulations implementing the Bank Secrecy Act.
The order directed Treasury and federal financial regulators to propose stronger risk-based customer due-diligence requirements and consider changes to customer-identification rules. It instructed regulators to examine the use of foreign consular identification documents, invalid or mismatched Social Security and taxpayer-identification numbers, payroll-tax schemes, and accounts associated with workers who lack employment authorization.
It also directed financial regulators to consider whether banks should obtain additional information concerning immigration status and employment authorization when those details are relevant to fraud, identity misrepresentation, sanctions evasion, or another identified financial risk.
The Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN ) subsequently issued a June 5 advisory urging banks and other financial institutions to identify and report suspicious activity associated with identity theft, payroll fraud, and the unlawful employment of people without work authorization.
FinCEN said some employers conceal unauthorized workers by using stolen identities, mismatched Social Security numbers, false payroll information, or off-the-books payment arrangements. The agency reported that financial institutions filed suspicious activity reports involving more than $2.5 billion in transactions associated with potential payroll-tax fraud during 2025.
The advisory was issued jointly with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, OCC, and the National Credit Union Administration, and in coordination with the Internal Revenue Service.
The Treasury Department said Bessent and Gould will discuss how Arizona community banks can support the administration’s enforcement efforts while continuing to provide financing and banking services to local businesses.
Additional details regarding the facility, participating business leaders, event times, and press access are expected later on Tuesday.
An Arizona congressman is warning constituents about the Chinese Communist Party’s close ties with Mexican drug cartels.
Congressman Abe Hamadeh, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, shared an article on X about the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) discovery of Chinese networks laundering billions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels through American financial institutions.
In his post, Hamadeh explained, “The Treasury’s FinCEN discovered that Chinese networks have been using our country to launder billions of dollars for the Mexican cartels. This is only part of a continued & concerted effort from a hostile CCP regime to undermine America’s public safety.”
The Treasury's FinCEN discovered that Chinese networks have been using our country to launder billions of dollars for the Mexican cartels.
This is only part of a continued & concerted effort from a hostile CCP regime to undermine America's public safety.https://t.co/XzCkm2hsIp
— Office of Congressman Abe Hamadeh (@RepAbeHamadeh) September 2, 2025
According to The Center Square, in a report from FinCEN, the Treasury Department analyzed 137,153 Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) reports totaling approximately $312 billion in suspicious activity from 2020 to 2024 that “sheds light on how [Chinese money laundering networks (CMLN),] launder illicit proceeds from criminal activities, including drug trafficking, and how CMLNs launder money on a global scale.”
The report revealed several alarming findings regarding CMLNs, describing a complex web of dirty money connecting ubiquitous real estate transactions throughout the United States to human trafficking over the Mexican border, and even assisted living facilities in New York.
“Ultimately, Chinese citizens’ demand for large quantities of U.S. dollars and the cartels’ need to launder their illicit U.S. dollar proceeds has resulted in a mutualistic relationship wherein the cartels sell off their illicitly obtained U.S. dollars to CMLNs who, in turn, sell the U.S. dollars to Chinese citizens seeking to evade China’s currency control laws,” the report explained.
According to the report, “The PRC maintains strict currency controls, also known as capital flight restrictions, which limit the amount of money Chinese citizens can transfer abroad each year to 50,000 USD for investment and financial purposes.”
To bypass these restrictions, many Chinese nationals turn to this underground banking system or ‘CUBS.’ Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John Hurley told The Center Square, “Money laundering networks linked to individual passport holders from the People’s Republic of China enable cartels to poison Americans with fentanyl, conduct human trafficking, and wreak havoc among communities across our great nation.”
The report found, “Many Chinese citizens have turned to alternative methods, like the Chinese underground banking system (CUBS), to bypass these restrictions. The CUBS consists of various individuals and businesses from different industries who collaborate through ‘mirror transfers’ to move money across borders, as part of informal value transfer system schemes. The CUBS, in turn, depend on CMLNs to secure foreign currency.”
FinCEN summarized that in just the past five years, it has recorded a significant increase in the money laundering schemes at play between CMLNs and Mexican Drug Cartels, with the agents “gain(ing) prominence among global money laundering groups due to their reliability, low fees, organizational structure, worldwide presence, and access to the U.S. financial system.” It also shared that that this massive financial windfall for bad actors in China are directly to tied to operations that “launder illicit proceeds from otherwise unrelated criminal networks involved in a range of illicit activities, including fraud schemes; human trafficking and smuggling; marijuana grow house operations; and tax evasion, by facilitating the exchange of cash proceeds.”
Communist China hasn't just been moving precursor chemicals for the Mexican cartels to make their poisons.
They've also been moving their money for them.
Congressman Hamadeh is aware of exactly what the CCP's intentions are: chaos and destruction.https://t.co/dFxYQc83FI
— Office of Congressman Abe Hamadeh (@RepAbeHamadeh) September 3, 2025
