Exclusive: About two dozen state treasurers sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, late Wednesday urging him to consider legislation that would bar the Biden administration from implementing a program that tracks private investment transactions.
Twenty-three officials from 19 states penned a letter calling for immediate action on Rep. Barry Loudermilk’s (R-Ga.) Investor Privacy Act.
Senator Loudermilk’s bill, HR 4551, would formally prohibit the SEC from requiring the collection of personally identifiable information under new programs and “for other purposes.”
If the bill passes, the signatories argue, it could prevent the Securities and Exchange Commission from continuing to implement changes to the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), the mechanism by which it tracks trading activity on the stock market.
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SEC Chairman Hester Pierce, a Trump appointee, warned that the CAT would act as “a comprehensive surveillance database that collects and stores every stock and options trade and quote from every account with every broker by every investor.”
In their letter, the signatories warned of civil rights concerns in this regard and the “questionable lawfulness” of CAT.
“We share the concerns of the American Securities Association and many members of the House and Senate…” [have] We expressed our concerns,” the letter states.
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He also said that federal regulations, not federal law, could make it illegal to create such a database.
The signatories argued that CAT’s collection of retail investor information “poses a clear threat to the security of all U.S. investors,” and that a central database would be vulnerable to hacker attacks.
State financial officials who signed the letter include Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacey Garrity, who is up for re-election this fall; South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis; West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore; Alabama Auditor General Andrew Sorrell; Nevada Auditor Andy Matthews; and Indiana Treasurer Daniel Elliott.
Matthews said the bill gives Congress an opportunity to “address serious threats to the privacy of Americans.”
Elliott said the CAT was a “data privacy nightmare” that would allow the federal government to inadvertently track the financial information of the typical American retail investor.
“Our government has shown that when it gives itself this much power, it is likely to act irresponsibly and harm average Americans. This entire program should be subject to Congressional legislation, not unelected bureaucrats in Washington.”
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Groups with ties to another prominent Indiana native, former Vice President Mike Pence, also opposed the SEC’s move and pressured Johnson to take action.
“The Conservative Party should co-sponsor this bill and demand a vote in the full House. [the bill] “To ensure that the financial data of Americans is protected,” Pence’s group, Advancing American Freedom, said in a June 5 statement.
“Traditionally, Americans’ financial assets have been kept between them and their brokers, not between them, their brokers, and some giant government database. The only exception is a legal search with a warrant.”
invoice There are 13 co-sponsorsAll of them are Republicans, and the most recent member is Rep. Alex X. Mooney of Virginia, who signed the bill on April 23.
Meanwhile, the executive director of the State Financial Officers Foundation Action told Fox News Digital that the SEC database was never approved by Congress, and called for a full House vote “as soon as possible,” highlighting concerns about due process.
The SEC has formally adopted Rule 613, which will implement the plan in 2023, but the CAT system is in place in some form. Since 2012The final stage of implementation took place on May 31, according to the commission’s website.
The Committee, Announce new rules This creates a record that allows regulators to efficiently and accurately track all securities activity across U.S. markets.
A call to Johnson’s office seeking comment was not returned by press time.
