Fair Access to Banking Needs to be a Congressional Priority

By Larry Keane

U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and U.S. Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) have an idea that seems so logical that it might be radical by Washington, D.C., standards.

The two lawmakers believe that banks should be lending based on objective risk assessment like credit worthiness and not broad-based decisions affecting whole categories or classes of customers for amorphous political reasons.

Seems logical. If a business has the required assets and the ability to repay a loan, banks should offer them services. They shouldn’t be denied access to banking resources, including lending, just because the legal products they happen to be in the business of producing and selling don’t align with the preferred political stripe of the banker’s corporate board.

Fair Access to Banking

Yet that’s exactly what’s been happening – for decades. It’s why Sen. Cramer introduced the NSSF-supported Fair Access to Banking Act, as S. 401, and Rep. Andy Barr introduced H. R. 987 under the same title. The Fair Access to Banking Act would stop corporate banks from picking winners and losers based on executives’ personal politics. The legislation also protects banks from outside pressure by special interest groups seeking to use the banks as a weapon to advance their political agenda.

The idea is gaining steam in Congress. Earlier this month, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) added his name to the list of Senate cosponsors for S. 401, making it 44 senators who are backing the legislation for passage. In the House of Representatives, eight more Members of Congress recently joined to cosponsor H.R. 987, including Reps. Tony Reid (R-Wis.), Burgess Owens (R-Utah), Greg Steube (R-Fla.), Russell Fry (R-S.C.), Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), William Timmons (R-S.C.), Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) and Mike Haridopolis (R-Fla.). That brings the total cosponsor count to 60.

With President Donald Trump’s efforts to boost U.S. manufacturing and revitalize a sustainable growth economy, the effort to ensure banking executives aren’t playing favorites with their lending practices is paramount. Businesses that can’t access capital and services won’t even be able to get off the ground to compete. That’s not just true of the local economies but also true to compete in the global marketplace.

Discriminatory Banking

However, certain corporate banks, which service America’s economy and enjoy taxpayer-subsidized insurance through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), sought to choke out the firearm and ammunition industry – just because they happen to politically-disagree with the idea that Americans should be able to buy the firearms of their choosing when they exercise their Second Amendment rights.

Corporate banks have privatized “Operation Choke Point,” the illegal discrimination scheme that began under the Obama-Biden administration. The Department of Justice (DOJ) and FDIC-led effort directed financial institutions to deny entire industries access to financial services, including the firearm industry. Despite being a Constitutionally-protected industry, the Obama-Biden administration illegally coerced banks to end existing business relationships and deny new ones.

After the illegal practice was ended under the first Trump administration, banks and special interest advocates privatized this scheme by adopting policies that specifically denied firearm businesses financial services for the sole reason of being in the business of selling certain types of lawful firearms. They forced these discriminatory practices while exploiting taxpayer-funded resources like FDIC insurance protections. There are now credible claims that under the Biden administration, banking regulators again pressured banks to “debank” certain industries, including the crypto industry.

Enough is Enough

That’s got the attention of Congress.

“When progressives failed at banning these entire industries, what they did instead is they turned to weaponizing banks as sort of a backdoor to carry out their activist goals,” said Sen. Cramer in a press release on his Fair Access to Banking Act. “Financial institutions are backed by taxpayers, for crying out loud! They should be obligated to provide services in an unbiased, risk-based manner. The Fair Access to Banking Act ensures that banks provide fair access to services and enacts strict penalties for categorically discriminating against legal industries and individuals.”

It’s not just Congress. President Trump made this an issue that he was going to address early in his second administration. He singled out Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan over debanking allegations at the World Economic Forum in January. Bank of America handed over the private financial transactions of lawful firearm and ammunition purchasers to the Biden administration in 2021 so they could be probed for “extremism.” That’s on top of Bank of America’s policy to restrict lending to manufacturers of Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs), despite those rifles being perfectly legal for sale and the most-commonly possessed semiautomatic centerfire rifle in America, with over 30 million in circulation today.

“And by the way, speaking of you – and you’ve done a fantastic job – but I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives,” President Trump began. “Many conservatives were complaining that the banks were not allowing them to do business, and that included a place called Bank of America. I don’t know if it was the regulators mandated that because of Biden or what, but…I hope you’re going to open your banks to conservatives because what you’re doing is wrong.”

Bank of America isn’t alone. Citigroup, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase – all corporate banks – have similar practices of discriminating against firearm and ammunition businesses.

Those discriminatory policies, which have been allowed to linger for decades, must end. Congress needs to act. The Fair Access to Banking Act is the key and as more Members of Congress and senators add their names to cosponsor the legislation, the pressure is mounting to get this legislation moved through Congress and sent to President Trump’s desk.

You may also be interested in:

NSSF Applauds U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer’s Fair Access to Banking Act Introduction

Bank of America Sells Out Gun & Ammo Purchasers as Potential Criminals

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