J.D. Vance Moves to Protect Crypto Companies, Energy, Firearms Companies from Bank Regulators

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) introduced legislation on Thursday that would seek to protect vulnerable industries from overly burdensome banking regulators.

Sens. Vance, Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), and Roger Marshall (R-KS) introduced the Financial Regulatory Accountability Act to establish an Inspector General (IG) within the Treasury Department.

The IG would oversee allegations of regulatory abuse and misconduct by financial regulations and stop the ability of regulators to push left wing policy through the federal financial regulatory apparatus.

“For far too long, federal regulators have focused on advancing the agenda of the far left at the expense of their core mission,” Vance said in a written statement. “Meanwhile, regulatory bias and misconduct has gone unreported, as institutions have feared retribution. This legislation aims to correct that imbalance by ensuring the banking system is governed by ethical and apolitical oversight.”

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Senator JD Vance / YouTube

Lummis said in a statement:

Federal agencies have abused the concept of reputational risk to deny legal industries access to the banking system. I’m proud to join my colleague Senator Vance in introducing the Financial Regulatory Accountability Act to protect access to our financial system and ensure financial regulators cannot evade Congressional oversight.

“Federal regulators have continually abused their mandates to advance radical environmental, social, and governance (ESG) agendas,” Marshall said.

He added, “Our legislation ensures that the Department of Treasury has an independent Inspector General that would provide relief to banks when regulators try to exploit their authority to take down oil and gas producers and others deemed by the woke Left as undesirable.”

Americans for Tax Reform, the Credit Union National Association, the National Association of Federal Insured Credit Unions, Ohio Bankers League, and Ohio Credit League back the legislation.

During the Barack Obama administration, conservatives said that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) invoked “reputational risk” to carry out Operation Chokepoint to debank firearms manufacturers.

A press release from Vance’s office said that many accounts suggest that the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and OCC examiners are using the same “reputational risk” to choke off lending to the oil and gas industry during supervisory check-ins.