Sponsors (2)
Official title: Improve prohibitions on money laundering, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 5, 2026 by Charles Ernest Grassley · Last progress February 5, 2026
The bill strengthens federal tools to detect and disrupt counterfeiting, money‑laundering, illicit money‑transmitting, and tax‑evasion financing — improving enforcement and statutory clarity — but it substantially expands criminal exposure, surveillance powers, and compliance costs that fall on individuals, immigrant communities, small operators, and financial institutions.
Federal, state, and local law enforcement and prosecutors gain broader investigative and charging tools — expanded predicate offenses, wiretap authority, aggregated‑transaction/commingling rules, and higher penalties — making it easier to detect, investigate, and prosecute complex counterfeiting, money‑laundering, unlicensed money‑transmitting, and tax‑evasion finance schemes.
Banks, money services businesses, and regulators get clearer statutory definitions and guidance (MSB definition, bearer‑instrument valuation/reporting rules, and updated transaction definitions), reducing legal ambiguity for compliance and supervision.
Money services businesses, regulators, and state/local enforcement will benefit from a coordinated remittance‑AML plan (including periodic reviews and implementation plans) that aims to disrupt remittance‑funded transnational crime while explicitly considering lawful remittance uses to avoid undue harm to recipients.
Individuals, small operators, immigrants, and businesses face substantially expanded criminal exposure and harsher penalties (longer prison terms, doubled fines) for a broader set of financial activities, increasing risk of overcriminalization and magnifying prosecutorial leverage and collateral consequences for defendants and families.
Banks, MSBs, and other financial firms will face significant additional compliance, reporting, and technology costs (AML measures, recordkeeping, responding to investigations), which may be passed on to customers and smaller firms.
Expanded surveillance authorities and increased information‑sharing (new wiretap predicates and broader intelligence collection tied to financial offenses) raise privacy and civil‑liberties risks for travelers, financial customers, and the general public.
Based on analysis of 26 sections of legislative text.
Strengthens counterfeiting and money‑laundering laws, modernizes illegal money‑services offenses (with a $1M aggravated threshold), raises penalties, and requires Treasury remittance threat/strategy reports.
Strengthens and expands federal criminal laws on counterfeiting, money laundering, illegal money services, and related reporting and investigative tools. It broadens offenses and penalties for possession and use of counterfeiting materials and bearer instruments, raises penalties for evading transaction-reporting requirements, modernizes the illegal money services business crime (including a $1,000,000 aggravated threshold), clarifies money‑laundering predicates (including certain tax crimes), and widens law enforcement authorities for surveillance predicates. It also requires Treasury to assess illicit uses of remittances and extends danger‑pay eligibility to several immigration and protective agencies. The bill increases investigative tools and criminal exposure for actors who launder funds, run unlicensed money services, use remittances to move illicit value, or manufacture/circumvent banknote security features. It directs studies and strategy planning at Treasury on remittance abuse, adjusts reporting rules for blank bearer instruments, and updates cross‑references and statutory language across Title 18 and Title 31 to reflect the new definitions and penalties.