{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://davidson.house.gov/2025/9/rep-warren-davidson-sen-jim-banks-urge-secretary-bessent-to-eliminate-burdensome-red-tape-threatening-small-businesses", "Rep. Warren Davidson, Sen. Jim Banks Urge Secretary Bessent to Eliminate Burdensome Red Tape Threatening Small Businesses", "2025-09-08", "2025", "2025-09", "Republican", "House", "OH", "Warren Davidson", "D000626", "davidson.house.gov", "davidson", "https://davidson.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, Representative Warren Davidson (R-OH) and Senator Jim Banks (R-IN) led 85 colleagues in sending a letter to Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, and President Donald Trump to urge the Department to eliminate unnecessary red tape and exempt U.S. businesses from the Corporate Transparency Act\u2019s (CTA) Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting requirements.\n\n\u201cThe CTA is intended to fight money laundering, a well-intentioned goal. However, the reality is that drug traffickers like El Chapo or criminals with shell companies will not file their beneficial ownership information with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN),\u201d the lawmakers wrote. \u201cThese criminals do not fear the harsh civil and criminal penalties\u2014up to a $10,000 fine and 2 years in prison\u2014 under the CTA. However, the 32.6 million law-abiding small business owners who do the right things and pay their taxes on time will register with FinCEN.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs Congress works to provide long-term relief from the CTA, we urge the Department of Treasury and FinCEN to promulgate a final rule that exempts U.S. businesses from the CTA,\u201d the letter continued.\n\n\u201cThe Corporate Transparency Act is one of the most burdensome small business regulations in history, unfairly targeting mom-and-pop shops while doing little to stop real criminals. Instead of curbing money laundering, it saddles more than 30 million law-abiding small businesses with compliance mandates and risks exposing their sensitive information,\u201d said Rep. Warren Davidson. \u201cSmall businesses are the backbone of our communities, and they should not be treated like criminals. That\u2019s exactly why we are demanding action, and why I\u2019ve sponsored the Repealing Big Brother Overreach Act\u2014to relieve small business owners from invasive red tape.\u201d\n\nBackground:\n\nThe CTA was inserted into the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic with little public debate.\n\nThe law applies only to small businesses \u2014 those with fewer than 20 employees and under $5 million in revenue \u2014 while exempting large corporations.\n\nSmall businesses must report \u201cbeneficial ownership\u201d information to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) or face penalties of up to $10,000 and 2 years in prison.\n\nThis sweeping mandate imposes tens of billions of dollars in compliance costs on 32.6 million law-abiding small businesses, while criminals, drug cartels, and foreign actors are unlikely to comply.\n\nSensitive data collected under the CTA can be accessed by state, federal, and international authorities without a subpoena or warrant, raising serious privacy and cybersecurity concerns.\n\nPresident Trump previously denounced the CTA as \u201cinvasive, outrageous, and an economic menace,\u201d recognizing its threat to America\u2019s small businesses.\n\nIn January, Rep. Davidson introduced the Repealing Big Brother Overreach Act to repeal the CTA.\n\nThe full text of the letter can be found here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-04-04T05:28:40Z", "2026-04-04T05:30:10Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://davidson.house.gov/2025/9/rep-warren-davidson-sen-jim-banks-urge-secretary-bessent-to-eliminate-burdensome-red-tape-threatening-small-businesses"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.810201046988368, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}