Sponsors (2)
The bill strengthens federal capabilities to detect, investigate, and punish complex financial crime and counterfeiting—improving national security and regulatory clarity—while significantly expanding criminal exposure, surveillance powers, and compliance costs that will affect businesses, immigrants, and ordinary taxpayers.
Law enforcement and federal prosecutors gain broader and clearer tools to investigate and charge counterfeiting, money‑laundering, tax‑fraud, and related financial crimes (expanded covered offenses, aggregation rules, cross‑references, and wiretap predicates).
Banks, money‑services businesses (MSBs), and regulators get clearer statutory definitions and reporting guidance (MSB definition, bearer‑instrument valuation, and parity between financial statutes), reducing legal ambiguity for compliance and supervision.
Remittance handlers, regulators, and recipients benefit from a mandated, periodic federal plan and coordination to detect illicit remittance‑based financing while requiring consideration of lawful remittance uses.
Small businesses, MSBs, immigrants, and ordinary taxpayers face broader criminal exposure and risk of felony charges (expanded felonies, strict liability registration rules, broader definitions) for conduct that can be inadvertent or part of informal community practices.
Defendants (including low‑income individuals and immigrants) face greater prosecutorial leverage and plea pressure because penalties are higher and offenses can be consolidated or aggregated into single counts.
Households, travelers, and businesses face increased privacy and surveillance risks from expanded wiretap predicates, broader information sharing, and retained carve‑outs for certain authorized activities.
Based on analysis of 26 sections of legislative text.
Tightens counterfeiting and money-laundering laws, modernizes the illegal money-transmission offense into a money-services-business offense, raises penalties, and requires a Treasury remittances strategy.
Introduced February 5, 2026 by Charles Ernest Grassley · Last progress February 5, 2026
Makes many changes to federal criminal and financial-crime law to strengthen tools against counterfeiting, money laundering, illegal money services, and illicit use of remittances. It raises some criminal penalties, narrows and clarifies counterfeiting prohibitions, broadens money-laundering predicates (including certain tax crimes), updates how transactions and bearer instruments count toward reporting thresholds, and expands law-enforcement authorities and definitions for money-services offenses. Requires the Treasury, working with Justice and Homeland Security, to study and plan responses to illicit use of remittances and money-transmission services, and to produce a remittances strategy with implementation steps and periodic updates; also expands which federal employees may receive danger-pay allowance and makes targeted technical changes to Secret Service authority and wiretap predicates.