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New Bill Seeks to Curtail Banks’ Role as Agents of Federal Surveillance

New Bill Seeks to Curtail Banks’ Role as Agents of Federal Surveillance
A combination file photo of Wells Fargo, Citigbank, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, JPMorgan, and Goldman Sachs from Reuters archive. Reuters
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Republican legislators have taken steps to revoke the power the government has granted itself to access Americans’ personal bank accounts without a search warrant.

Through existing laws such as the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the government “basically deputized banks as law enforcement agencies, mandating them to collect information on their customers and report that information to the federal government,” according to Rep. John Rose (R-Tenn.), a member of the House Financial Services Committee.