{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://meuser.house.gov/media/press-releases/meuser-hill-expose-coordinated-debanking-biden-administration", "Meuser, Hill Expose Coordinated Debanking by Biden Administration", "2025-12-01", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "PA", "Daniel Meuser", "M001204", "meuser.house.gov", "meuser", "https://meuser.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 Today, House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill (AR-02) and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Dan Meuser (PA-09), released a final staff report titled \u201cOperation Choke Point 2.0: Biden\u2019s Debanking of Digital Assets.\u201d The report exposes the Biden Administration\u2019s coordinated effort to push digital asset businesses and individuals out of the U.S. financial system, reinventing a debanking practice that occurred under the Obama Administration and targeted those engaged in payday lending, firearm and ammunition sales, energy companies, and other politically disfavored groups.\n\nBeginning in the 118th Congress, Committee Republicans investigated how federal regulators under the Biden Administration abused their authority, using vague rules, informal guidance, broad discretion, and aggressive enforcement to pressure financial institutions to cut off digital asset clients. These actions forced many companies to shut down or move operations overseas, threatening U.S. leadership and innovation in the digital asset market.\n\nKey findings include:\n\nThe Federal Reserve discouraged banks from engaging with digital asset firms through policy statements, supervisory letters, and the Novel Activities Supervision Program.\n\nThe FDIC sent pause letters and issued extensive document requests, effectively halting bank engagement with digital asset activities.\n\nThe OCC required institutions to obtain non-objection letters before engaging in digital asset activities.\n\nThe SEC used regulation-by-enforcement tactics, in some cases exceeding statutory authority, targeting lawful digital asset activity.\n\nClick here to view the full debanking report.\n\nSubcommittee Chair Meuser said, \u201cAs Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, our team worked under Chairman Hill\u2019s direction to compile the first comprehensive accounting of how the Biden Administration used regulators to push lawful digital-asset firms and Americans out of the financial system. The evidence is clear: debanking was real, it was coordinated, and it harmed American workers, innovators, and our global competitiveness.\u201d\n\n\u201cNo American should lose access to financial services because a federal regulator dislikes their politics, their religion, or their lawful business activity,\u201d Meuser continued. \u201cThat is fundamentally incompatible with a free society.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis report documents how Obama-era practices were revived and expanded under President Biden\u2014through pause letters, informal pressure campaigns, and regulation-by-enforcement that forced U.S. companies offshore,\u201d he added. \u201cIt also highlights the early leadership of President Trump, Secretary Bessent, Vice Chair Bowman, Comptroller Gould, and Acting Chair Hill in reversing this hostility and restoring fairness and clarity to bank supervision.\u201d\n\n\u201cOur work is not finished,\u201d Meuser concluded. \u201cThe Committee will continue working closely with the Trump Administration to end debanking once and for all. My SAFE Guidance Act and Rep. Barr\u2019s FIRM Act, together with President Trump\u2019s executive actions, provide a strong foundation. Now Congress must codify these protections into law so that an Operation Choke Point 3.0 can never happen.\u201d\n\nChairman Hill said, \u201cTargeting Americans over their political views erodes trust in the financial system and undermines the core freedoms our nation was founded on. The staff report released today summarizes Committee Republicans\u2019 work and details how the Biden Administration\u2019s regulators worked to debank the digital asset ecosystem. Under the leadership of President Trump, we\u2019ve ushered in a new era for digital assets and look forward to reversing the damage done by the Biden Administration to prevent unlawful debanking.\u201d\n\nFinancial Institutions Subcommittee Chairman Andy Barr (KY-06) stated, \u201cThe Committee\u2019s report makes clear that Choke Point 2.0, an explicit, politically motivated attack on digital assets under the Biden Administration, was real and unacceptable. I commend Chairman Hill for spotlighting this issue. I will continue working to advance my bill that will permanently enshrine President Trump\u2019s Executive Order protecting digital assets, Christian nonprofits, firearms manufacturers, energy producers, and other politically targeted industries from being debanked.\u201d", 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://meuser.house.gov/media/press-releases/meuser-hill-expose-coordinated-debanking-biden-administration"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8640419691801071, "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"}