For Immediate Release:
August 2, 2024
For press inquiries only, contact:
Amanda Priest (334) 322-5694
William Califf (334) 604-3230
(Montgomery, Ala) – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall joined Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and 18 other attorneys general in opposition to the Biden-Harris administration’s claim that state laws preventing de-banking are a “national security threat.” Attorney General Moody and the coalition claim this is just another attempt to stoke confusion about state laws to advance extreme activist agendas.
“Never in my life did I think that I would see a day in the United States of America, where states would be forced to take action to protect their citizens from far-left radical experiments like a social credit score,” Attorney General Marshall said. “Under Biden-Harris leadership, the Treasury Department has been weaponized to threaten and browbeat states that push back against their radical ideology by making outrageous accusations that simply are not true.”
In a scathing response to Treasury Secretary Yellen today, the coalition of attorneys general states, “No consumer or business should be denied services based on political beliefs or religious views or because of some arbitrary social credit score derived from ideological agendas. The letter deliberately misleads financial institutions about these state laws, for example, by falsely suggesting that laws such as Florida’s HB 989 would prohibit financial institutions from considering whether a consumer is associated with designated terrorist groups. On the contrary, laws like HB 989 ensure that financial institutions focus on true risk-based factors and stay out of the business of forcing radical social policies.”
Additionally, the attorneys general go on to point out that the Treasury Department seemingly is now opposed to their very own language stating, “deny[ing] any person a financial service . . . unless the denial is justified by such person’s quantified and documented failure to meet quantitative, impartial risk-based standards.” The coalition states, “At the time, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network did not pose any objections to that language as creating a national security risk. Such an omission from criticism reveals that the Department’s current criticisms are the product of political posturing rather than any genuine concern that prohibiting discrimination somehow endangers national security.”
Attorney General Moody and the coalition of attorneys general are “looking forward to the day when federal regulators will focus on their statutory duties, rather than on advancing radical political causes…”
Attorney General Marshall and Attorney General Moody are joined by the attorneys general from Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Read the full letter here.
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