Just yesterday, Rep. Kristi Noem voted in favor of the deceptive H.R. 5606: Anti-terrorism Information Sharing Is Strength Act.  Fortunately, the bill failed.  As Republican Rep. Justin Amash put it, “… H.R. 5606 will permit the government to demand information on any American from any financial institution merely upon reasonable suspicion.”  Reasonable suspicion by the way, is the same legal standard federal officials used when needlessly strip searching a teen-age Sturgis girl.

H.R. 5606 is deceptive in that it’s not really about stopping terrorists.  Section 314 of the Patriot Act already allows law enforcement to  seek financial records of suspected terrorists and money launderers.  H.R. 5606 allows law enforcement to seek financial records based on the low “reasonable suspicious” standard for any matter of crime, all without a search warrant/judicial oversight.

Moreover, this bill was “fast-tracked” under a suspension of the rules which means that it did not pass through a committee like most other legislation, no amendments were allowed, debate was limited, and most representatives didn’t even have a chance to read the bill.  I suspect that the Republican leadership knew this would be a controversial bill, and they tried to pass it quietly without notice.