It seems that reaching out to the public for input is pretty unpopular in the U.S. government.

Earlier this month, it became evident that the SEC has been consistently shortchanging the public during the rulemaking process. Now the America COMPETES Act, a bill that was introduced to “reinvigorate the innovation engine of our economy to outcompete China,” would remove the public notice requirements from the Treasury’s enforcement abilities under the Bank Secrecy Act.

At nearly 3,000 pages, there’s much to consider in the new bill. However, Section 60202 is particularly concerning. The House Committee on Financial Services described the section by saying, “This provision by Representative Jim Himes (D‑CT) streamlines the process by which special measures may be introduced and modernizes the authorities granted to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).” Streamlining and modernizing the government is usually a welcome change of pace, but what they really mean is that they are cutting the public out of the picture.

Currently, the public is involved in the governing process to ensure that the Secretary of the Treasury does not abuse those “special measures.” Before the Treasury can take action, the current law requires a notice of proposed rulemaking as well as a 120-day limit on the enforcement. The America COMPETES Act, however, eliminates both the requirement to notify the public and the 120-day limit on enforcement.

Were this disregard for checks and balances not enough, the bill also adds an update to the law regarding “prohibitions or conditions on certain transmittals of funds.” This update boils down to this: if anyone outside the United States is involved with a transaction and the Treasury deems it to be a money laundering concern, the Treasury Secretary can prohibit the transactions. For example, if cryptocurrency transactions are validated by a miner outside the United States, the Treasury can prohibit U.S. banks, exchanges, and the like from being involved with the transactions.

As Jerry Brito and Peter Van Valkenburgh first described it,

In other words, it is an attempt … to use the moral panic surrounding criminal usage of cryptocurrencies … to strip our surveillance laws of all public processes.

It seems that once again, the country is facing another shining example of why must-pass bills, at thousands of pages, do not operate in the spirit of democracy.

The America COMPETES Act is billed to help the nation compete with China. Instead, it seems Representative Jim Himes’ (D‑CT) section of the bill copies China’s disregard for privacy, due process, and democracy. Congress should not only remove the section in question today, but also remove it from further consideration since the section was already removed once last year when it was first introduced in the National Defense Authorization Act. There is no justification for an unelected official to hold so much unchecked power.