WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, led 36 Republican colleagues in reintroducing his Fair Access to Banking Act, a bill to bar financial institutions from refusing or limiting services to constitutionally-protected industries.
“There is no place in our society for discrimination, and big banks and financial institutions are no exception. The Biden administration and their liberal base are weaponizing the financial system to defund, debank, or discredit industries they do not like,” said Senator Cramer. “It is fundamentally unfair. Our bill imposes serious consequences for discriminatory decisions or de facto bans of legal industries.”
The purpose of the Fair Access to Banking Act is to protect fair access to financial services and to ensure banks operate in a safe and sound manner, basing their judgements and decisions on impartial, individualized risk-based analysis developed through empirical data and evaluated under quantifiable standards. If enacted, this bill would:
Senator Cramer’s legislation is in response to United States banks and financial institutions increasingly using their economic standing to categorically discriminate against legal industries. For example, in 2018, Citigroup instituted a policy to withhold project-related financing for coal plants; in 2020, five of the country’s largest banks announced they would not provide loans or credit to support oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, despite explicit congressional authorization. Such exclusionary practices extend to industries protected by the Second Amendment too, with Capital One, among other banks, including “ammunitions, firearms, or firearm parts” in the prohibited payments section of its corporate policy manual, and payment services like Apple Pay and PayPal denying their services for transactions involving firearms or ammunition.
In response to these developments, the Trump Administration created the Fair Access Rule – which Senator Cramer helped craft and is codified in this legislation – to prevent these examples and other acts of discrimination, but the rule’s implementation has since been paused under President Biden. Today’s legislation also expands on the Freedom Financing Act, which was one of the first bills Senator Cramer introduced when he joined the Senate in 2019.
Senator Cramer is joined by these cosponsors: Katie Britt (R-AL), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), John Boozman (R-AR), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rick Scott (R-FL), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Jim Risch (R-ID), Mike Braun (R-IN), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), John Kennedy (R-LA), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Steve Daines (R-MT), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Thom Tillis (R-NC), John Hoeven (R-ND), J.D. Vance (R-OH), James Lankford (R-OK), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Tim Scott (R-SC), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), John Cornyn (R-TX), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Ron Johnson (R-WI), John Barrasso (R-WY), and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY). The group makes up over one-third of the Senate.
The bill has garnered industry support from organizations including the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), National Rifle Association (NRA), Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), National Mining Association (NMA), National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, and Day 1 Alliance.
Click here for bill text.