{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/senator-scott-applauds-president-trumps-executive-order-to-combat-debanking/", "Senator Scott Applauds President Trump\u2019s Executive Order to Combat Debanking", "2025-08-08", "2025", "2025-08", "Republican", "Senate", "SC", "Tim Scott", "S001184", "www.scott.senate.gov", "timscott", "https://www.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/jsf/jet-engine:press-list", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2014 Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) issued the following statement on President Trump\u2019s Executive Order to combat debanking.\n\n\u201cDebanking federally legal businesses and law-abiding citizens is un-American, and President Trump\u2019s Executive Order (E.O.) is a critical step towards protecting Americans\u2019 access to financial services. Here in Congress, I\u2019ve led my colleagues in fighting back against debanking, including passing legislation to end the subjective use of \u2018reputational risk\u2019 in bank supervision. I am glad to see today\u2019s E.O. which will ensure that no regulator, and no bank, is above the principles of fairness and market access. I\u2019ll continue to work with President Trump to end the debanking of law-abiding Americans and federally legal businesses on the basis of their political or religious affiliations,\u201d said Senator Tim Scott.\n\nBACKGROUND:\n\nIn his first legislative hearing of the year, Senator Scott hosted witnesses who shared firsthand their experiences being debanked. At the hearing, Senator Scott called out the Biden administration\u2019s financial regulators who exploited their power and pressured financial institutions to cut off services to individuals and businesses and pledged that the committee will work to find solutions to address this issue. During the committee\u2019s hearing with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Senator Scott again highlighted the issue of debanking federally legal businesses and law-abiding citizens, and Chair Powell committed to working with the committee to end this practice. Senator Scott also led a roundtable discussion with Senate Banking Republicans and leaders from the nation\u2019s largest consumer banks focused on debanking and other regulatory issues facing the financial institutions.\n\nAt each of these events, Senator Scott heard testimony on how federal banking regulators use a subjective concept called \u201creputational risk\u201d to regulate banks based on the subjective view of negative publicity, which provides cover for the agencies to implement their own political agenda unrelated to the safety and soundness of a bank.\n\nAs a result, Senator Scott led his fellow Banking Committee Republicans in introducing legislation to curtail the weaponization of federal banking agencies by eliminating the ability for regulators to use reputational risk as a component of supervision. The American Bankers Association, the Bank Policy Institute, the Financial Services Forum, the Blockchain Association, and the Online Lenders Alliance have all endorsed the bill. Organizations representing industries that have been debanked, including the ATM Industry Association, the INFiN Alliance, the National Pawnbrokers Association, and the National Shooting Sports Foundation, as well as a coalition of 26 state financial officers, also voiced their support. Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) introduced bipartisan companion legislation in the House of Representatives.\n\nSenator Scott\u2019s Financial Integrity and Regulation Management (FIRM) Act advanced out of the Senate Banking Committee during the first legislative markup of the 119th Congress. After the committee successfully passed the bill, federal financial regulators took action to remove this arbitrary regulatory tool.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:02:47Z"]], "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://www.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/senator-scott-applauds-president-trumps-executive-order-to-combat-debanking/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.273689955472946, "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"}