The House debated H.R. 1181, the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act, which would bar payment card networks from using merchant category codes that single out firearms retailers. Republicans, including Riley Moore, French Hill, Andy Barr, Jim Jordan, Jefferson Van Drew, and Laurel Lee, argued that the codes invade the financial privacy of lawful gun buyers and could be used to track or control them. Democrats, including Maxine Waters, Mike Thompson, Maxwell Frost, and Al Green, opposed the bill, saying the codes help banks and law enforcement flag suspicious purchases and prevent gun violence and trafficking.Written by AI from the debate. Updated .
“I am asking the House to take up this bill to stop credit card companies from tracking gun store purchases separately.”
“Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1423, I call up the bill (H.R. 1181) to prohibit payment card networks and covered entities from requiring the use of or assigning merchant category codes that distinguish a firearms retailer from general- merchandise retailer or sporting-goods retailer, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House. The Clerk read the title of the bill.”
Official Congressional Record
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1423, I call up the bill (H.R. 1181) to prohibit payment card networks and covered entities from requiring the use of or assigning merchant category codes that distinguish a firearms retailer from general- merchandise retailer or sporting-goods retailer, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House. The Clerk read the title of the bill.
“I want the House to pass this bill. It stops credit card companies from using special codes to track gun sales. People should be able to buy legal items without the payment system monitoring what they purchase.”
“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of Mr. Moore’s Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act. Financial privacy is fundamental to consumer trust and confidence in our financial system. As technology continues to transform financial services, protecting Americans’ financial privacy remains an essential part of Congress’ oversight role. Merchant category codes were designed to help process transactions, not create mechanisms for tracking or categorizing lawful purchases. Maintaining trust in the payment system requires clear safeguards to ensure that these tools are used for commerce, not consumer surveillance. H.R. 1181 establishes those safeguards by preventing payment card networks and processors from using merchant category codes to target firearms retailers and their customers. The Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act provides important protections for consumers by preventing the misuse of payment systems to monitor lawful purchasing activity. Consumers should not have to sacrifice their financial privacy in order to participate in our modern economy. Protecting financial privacy helps reinforce confidence in the institutions and infrastructure that our payment systems operate around. Americans should be able to participate in the economy with confidence that their lawful transactions are simply being processed, not tracked or categorized or scrutinized beyond what is never necessary to essentially facilitate the payment. This bill helps preserve the integrity of that payment system by keeping it focused on facilitating commerce and efficient movement of funds. Importantly, this bill does not interfere with any existing law enforcement authorities, anti-money laundering requirements, fraud prevention efforts, or other obligations designed to protect consumers and safeguard our financial system. H.R. 1181 is a commonsense measure that simply safeguards financial privacy while maintaining the integrity of our Nation’s payment network. I urge all my colleagues to support the legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.”
Official Congressional Record
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of Mr. Moore’s Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act. Financial privacy is fundamental to consumer trust and confidence in our financial system. As technology continues to transform financial services, protecting Americans’ financial privacy remains an essential part of Congress’ oversight role. Merchant category codes were designed to help process transactions, not create mechanisms for tracking or categorizing lawful purchases. Maintaining trust in the payment system requires clear safeguards to ensure that these tools are used for commerce, not consumer surveillance. H.R. 1181 establishes those safeguards by preventing payment card networks and processors from using merchant category codes to target firearms retailers and their customers. The Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act provides important protections for consumers by preventing the misuse of payment systems to monitor lawful purchasing activity. Consumers should not have to sacrifice their financial privacy in order to participate in our modern economy. Protecting financial privacy helps reinforce confidence in the institutions and infrastructure that our payment systems operate around. Americans should be able to participate in the economy with confidence that their lawful transactions are simply being processed, not tracked or categorized or scrutinized beyond what is never necessary to essentially facilitate the payment. This bill helps preserve the integrity of that payment system by keeping it focused on facilitating commerce and efficient movement of funds. Importantly, this bill does not interfere with any existing law enforcement authorities, anti-money laundering requirements, fraud prevention efforts, or other obligations designed to protect consumers and safeguard our financial system. H.R. 1181 is a commonsense measure that simply safeguards financial privacy while maintaining the integrity of our Nation’s payment network. I urge all my colleagues to support the legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
“I want the House to pass this bill. It stops credit card companies from using special codes for gun stores. These codes could be used to track gun owners and create a list of who owns guns.”
“Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my bill, H.R. 1181, the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act. My bill preserves two fundamental rights: the right to privacy and the right to bear arms. Americans should not be forced to disclose to payment processors when they buy firearms. The bill preserves Americans’ rights by prohibiting the creation of a separate merchant category code for firearms. This would, of course, become a de facto gun registry. The bill also preempts harmful State laws and gives the Attorney General authority to take any bank or payment processor that assigns or requires a separate code to Federal court. For too long, the American people have had their rights undermined by the radical left. The bill’s premise is simple: no gun registries, period. In fact, this very body has twice prohibited these unjust registries, once in 1986 and again in 1993, to prohibit the left from destroying Americans’ rights. However, the gun-grabbing left never stops trying. In 2021, the progressive Amalgamated Bank lobbied the International Organization for Standardization to create a separate merchant category code for firearm retailers to advance a backdoor gun registry. Previously, these retailers had always been accurately categorized as miscellaneous retail stores or sporting goods stores. Amalgamated Bank was hell-bent on tracking firearm purchases. It pressured a faceless, unaccountable, foreign standards body in Geneva to stand up a new merchant category code explicitly targeting American gun owners and American businesses. When I was State treasurer in West Virginia, we said ``no’’ to the gun-grabbing progressive bank partnering with a European NGO destroying American rights. Under my leadership as State treasurer, West Virginia enacted one of the first bans on separate merchant category codes for firearms retailers, protecting the privacy of our State’s gun owners. Nineteen States after that followed suit. However, a patchwork of State regulations is not enough. California, Colorado, and New York currently mandate that firearm stores have a separate merchant category code, creating a de facto registry in some of the most populous States in our country. This cannot be allowed to stand. We have already seen the Biden administration pressure financial institutions to hand over data on their customers. A private database of gun owners falling into the hands of a future anti-gun administration is a threat that we cannot accept. Our God-given right to own a firearm does not stop at the border of blue States. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues, Representatives Barr and Hudson, for their work on this bill. I also thank Chairman Hill for getting it across the finish line. I also thank Representative Stefanik for her leadership on this issue. These are our God-given rights, spelled out in our Constitution, and we proudly exercise them. We will not allow an elitist bank partnered with a foreign, faceless bureaucracy to rob Americans of their right to protect themselves. In West Virginia, we don’t ask permission to protect ourselves and our families, and no American should ever have to wonder whether buying a firearm will land them on a government watch list. Privacy and gun ownership go hand in hand. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.’’”
Official Congressional Record
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my bill, H.R. 1181, the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act. My bill preserves two fundamental rights: the right to privacy and the right to bear arms. Americans should not be forced to disclose to payment processors when they buy firearms. The bill preserves Americans’ rights by prohibiting the creation of a separate merchant category code for firearms. This would, of course, become a de facto gun registry. The bill also preempts harmful State laws and gives the Attorney General authority to take any bank or payment processor that assigns or requires a separate code to Federal court. For too long, the American people have had their rights undermined by the radical left. The bill’s premise is simple: no gun registries, period. In fact, this very body has twice prohibited these unjust registries, once in 1986 and again in 1993, to prohibit the left from destroying Americans’ rights. However, the gun-grabbing left never stops trying. In 2021, the progressive Amalgamated Bank lobbied the International Organization for Standardization to create a separate merchant category code for firearm retailers to advance a backdoor gun registry. Previously, these retailers had always been accurately categorized as miscellaneous retail stores or sporting goods stores. Amalgamated Bank was hell-bent on tracking firearm purchases. It pressured a faceless, unaccountable, foreign standards body in Geneva to stand up a new merchant category code explicitly targeting American gun owners and American businesses. When I was State treasurer in West Virginia, we said ``no’’ to the gun-grabbing progressive bank partnering with a European NGO destroying American rights. Under my leadership as State treasurer, West Virginia enacted one of the first bans on separate merchant category codes for firearms retailers, protecting the privacy of our State’s gun owners. Nineteen States after that followed suit. However, a patchwork of State regulations is not enough. California, Colorado, and New York currently mandate that firearm stores have a separate merchant category code, creating a de facto registry in some of the most populous States in our country. This cannot be allowed to stand. We have already seen the Biden administration pressure financial institutions to hand over data on their customers. A private database of gun owners falling into the hands of a future anti-gun administration is a threat that we cannot accept. Our God-given right to own a firearm does not stop at the border of blue States. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues, Representatives Barr and Hudson, for their work on this bill. I also thank Chairman Hill for getting it across the finish line. I also thank Representative Stefanik for her leadership on this issue. These are our God-given rights, spelled out in our Constitution, and we proudly exercise them. We will not allow an elitist bank partnered with a foreign, faceless bureaucracy to rob Americans of their right to protect themselves. In West Virginia, we don’t ask permission to protect ourselves and our families, and no American should ever have to wonder whether buying a firearm will land them on a government watch list. Privacy and gun ownership go hand in hand. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.’’
“I want the House to pass this bill. It stops credit card companies from using special codes to track gun sales. Buying a gun legally is a constitutional right, and the government should not use payment data to spy on legal gun owners.”
“Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1181, the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act. I thank my friend, the gentleman from Arkansas, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, for his leadership on the bill and for yielding. I am proud to be a cosponsor of this legislation. I thank Congressman Riley Moore for his leadership on this important bill. I thank Congressman Richard Hudson for his longstanding work defending the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens, and our colleague from New York, Elise Stefanik, for her original introduction of this bill in several previous Congresses. At its core, this bill is about protecting privacy and preventing government surveillance on citizens simply for exercising their constitutionally enshrined Second Amendment rights. H.R. 1181 prohibits payment card networks and financial institutions from requiring or assigning merchant category codes, or MCCs, that single out firearm retailers for separate tracking and monitoring. Unfortunately, we have seen repeated examples of progressive regulators and government officials pressuring financial institutions to target lawful industries and lawful customers. From Operation Choke Point under the Obama administration and Choke Point 2.0 under Biden to New York financial regulators pressuring insurance companies to abandon longstanding relationships with the NRA, Americans have legitimate reasons to be concerned about the weaponization of the financial system. Despite what those on the other side of the aisle may say, this bill does nothing to prevent law enforcement or regulators from investigating criminal activity, nor does it change the stringent requirements on financial institutions to comply with existing anti- money laundering laws or suspicious activity reporting requirements. However, what my friend from California who just spoke doesn’t say, but it needs to be said, is that the lawful purchase of a firearm protected by the Second Amendment is not in and of itself suspicious activity, nor should it be surveilled by the government. What it does is prevent the creation of a framework that could be used to monitor, flag, and discourage lawful purchases from federally licensed firearm retailers. This is about preventing government actors from using financial data to target Americans who are engaged in conduct expressly protected by the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms, a fundamental liberty for Americans. Americans should not have to worry that lawful purchases that they made will be used to create lists, databases, or surveillance tools aimed at this constitutionally protected activity. My friend, the ranking member from California, cited statistics about annual and daily deaths that she says are the result of gun violence. Respectfully, the right to bear arms is not the cause of violence. One murder is too many in America, period. We all agree on that. Rather than blaming gun violence, Congress would be more productive focusing on the root causes of homicide: the breakdown of the family, lack of active parenting, mental illness, open-border policies, policies to defund the police, soft-on-crime policies like no cash bail, and politically motivated violence, like the kind that was behind the murder of Charlie Kirk. Addressing these societal problems does not require unconstitutional surveillance of Americans. H.R. 1181 establishes commonsense guardrails to prevent regulatory abuse and safeguards constitutional freedoms. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.”
Official Congressional Record
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1181, the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act. I thank my friend, the gentleman from Arkansas, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, for his leadership on the bill and for yielding. I am proud to be a cosponsor of this legislation. I thank Congressman Riley Moore for his leadership on this important bill. I thank Congressman Richard Hudson for his longstanding work defending the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens, and our colleague from New York, Elise Stefanik, for her original introduction of this bill in several previous Congresses. At its core, this bill is about protecting privacy and preventing government surveillance on citizens simply for exercising their constitutionally enshrined Second Amendment rights. H.R. 1181 prohibits payment card networks and financial institutions from requiring or assigning merchant category codes, or MCCs, that single out firearm retailers for separate tracking and monitoring. Unfortunately, we have seen repeated examples of progressive regulators and government officials pressuring financial institutions to target lawful industries and lawful customers. From Operation Choke Point under the Obama administration and Choke Point 2.0 under Biden to New York financial regulators pressuring insurance companies to abandon longstanding relationships with the NRA, Americans have legitimate reasons to be concerned about the weaponization of the financial system. Despite what those on the other side of the aisle may say, this bill does nothing to prevent law enforcement or regulators from investigating criminal activity, nor does it change the stringent requirements on financial institutions to comply with existing anti- money laundering laws or suspicious activity reporting requirements. However, what my friend from California who just spoke doesn’t say, but it needs to be said, is that the lawful purchase of a firearm protected by the Second Amendment is not in and of itself suspicious activity, nor should it be surveilled by the government. What it does is prevent the creation of a framework that could be used to monitor, flag, and discourage lawful purchases from federally licensed firearm retailers. This is about preventing government actors from using financial data to target Americans who are engaged in conduct expressly protected by the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms, a fundamental liberty for Americans. Americans should not have to worry that lawful purchases that they made will be used to create lists, databases, or surveillance tools aimed at this constitutionally protected activity. My friend, the ranking member from California, cited statistics about annual and daily deaths that she says are the result of gun violence. Respectfully, the right to bear arms is not the cause of violence. One murder is too many in America, period. We all agree on that. Rather than blaming gun violence, Congress would be more productive focusing on the root causes of homicide: the breakdown of the family, lack of active parenting, mental illness, open-border policies, policies to defund the police, soft-on-crime policies like no cash bail, and politically motivated violence, like the kind that was behind the murder of Charlie Kirk. Addressing these societal problems does not require unconstitutional surveillance of Americans. H.R. 1181 establishes commonsense guardrails to prevent regulatory abuse and safeguards constitutional freedoms. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
“I want the House to pass this bill. The government uses credit card codes to track people who buy guns, and that violates their privacy rights.”
“Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, you don’t give up your Fourth Amendment rights when you are exercising your Second Amendment rights. That is what is happening out there: People’s privacy is being invaded. These merchant codes are there so the government can abuse them and track you. If you don’t think I am right about this, we have the evidence: January 15, 2021, an email from the FBI to Bank of America saying give us every debit card and credit card purchase for anyone in Washington, D.C., for these particular dates. That is bad enough. You are allowed to travel in this country, too. That is a right we have. Here is what they also say: Also, overlay that with any historic purchase for weapons or weapons-related purchases. What? We want to know what you bought when you were at a certain location, and we want to know if you ever purchased a gun anytime in your life with that credit card or debit card. That is what the FBI asked Bank of America to do. That is how dangerous this practice is. That is why the sponsor from West Virginia, the chairman, and the committee’s work is so good. God bless them. You don’t give up your Fourth Amendment rights. Our Constitution protects our First, Second, and Fourth Amendment liberties--all of them. They are all important. That is why this legislation is critical. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for his good work and Mr. Moore from West Virginia for sponsoring the bill.”
Official Congressional Record
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, you don’t give up your Fourth Amendment rights when you are exercising your Second Amendment rights. That is what is happening out there: People’s privacy is being invaded. These merchant codes are there so the government can abuse them and track you. If you don’t think I am right about this, we have the evidence: January 15, 2021, an email from the FBI to Bank of America saying give us every debit card and credit card purchase for anyone in Washington, D.C., for these particular dates. That is bad enough. You are allowed to travel in this country, too. That is a right we have. Here is what they also say: Also, overlay that with any historic purchase for weapons or weapons-related purchases. What? We want to know what you bought when you were at a certain location, and we want to know if you ever purchased a gun anytime in your life with that credit card or debit card. That is what the FBI asked Bank of America to do. That is how dangerous this practice is. That is why the sponsor from West Virginia, the chairman, and the committee’s work is so good. God bless them. You don’t give up your Fourth Amendment rights. Our Constitution protects our First, Second, and Fourth Amendment liberties--all of them. They are all important. That is why this legislation is critical. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for his good work and Mr. Moore from West Virginia for sponsoring the bill.
“I want the House to pass this bill. Credit card companies should not track gun sales. If banks can track what you buy, they can control you and violate your rights.”
“Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill. This is not about crime. It is about control. Once you can flag a purchase, any purchase, you can flag a person. Once you can flag a person, you can control what they buy, what banks they use, and even what they believe. It is wrong. It is un-American. This bill is not just about guns. It is about the precedent that was set. If we allow financial institutions to become the surveillance arm of one party’s political agenda today, there will be no limit to what gets flagged tomorrow. Let me be clear: Buying a firearm is not extremism; buying a Bible is not extremism; reading the news you choose and want to read is not extremism; exercising a constitutional right is not extremism. The extreme position is using America’s banks to build a permanent list to track who people worship, what they read, and what constitutional rights they happen to choose to exercise. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote for privacy, freedom, and the Constitution of the United States of America.”
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill. This is not about crime. It is about control. Once you can flag a purchase, any purchase, you can flag a person. Once you can flag a person, you can control what they buy, what banks they use, and even what they believe. It is wrong. It is un-American. This bill is not just about guns. It is about the precedent that was set. If we allow financial institutions to become the surveillance arm of one party’s political agenda today, there will be no limit to what gets flagged tomorrow. Let me be clear: Buying a firearm is not extremism; buying a Bible is not extremism; reading the news you choose and want to read is not extremism; exercising a constitutional right is not extremism. The extreme position is using America’s banks to build a permanent list to track who people worship, what they read, and what constitutional rights they happen to choose to exercise. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote for privacy, freedom, and the Constitution of the United States of America.
“I want the House to pass this bill. It stops credit card companies and banks from using special codes to track people who legally buy guns and ammunition. Banks should only process payments, not spy on lawful Americans.”
“Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1181, the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act. The Second Amendment is a constitutional right. Americans should not have their lawful purchases singled out simply because they choose to exercise that right. This bill stops efforts to create a special system for identifying and organizing purchases made at firearm and ammunition retailers. While its proponents present this as simply an administrative tool, in practice it raises serious concerns about privacy and the unjust treatment of lawful conduct. Americans are increasingly concerned about how much information is collected, stored, and shared. Those concerns are especially valid when it comes to information being tracked that relates to the exercise of a constitutional freedom. Here is the reality: Tracking the lawful purchase of firearms and ammunition creates a framework for collecting information about law-abiding citizens who have done nothing wrong. My home State of Florida already prohibits this type of surveillance. Floridians understand something that most Americans agree with: Your bank should process your transaction, not track your activities. This bill prevents payment networks and financial institutions from requiring special codes for firearms retailers, while preserving existing tools used to combat fraud, protect consumers, maintain cybersecurity, and report suspicious activity. At its core, this legislation is about privacy, fairness, and the principle that the exercise of constitutional rights should never become the basis for surveillance. I thank the chairman and the bill’s sponsor for their work on this important issue. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1181.”
Official Congressional Record
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1181, the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act. The Second Amendment is a constitutional right. Americans should not have their lawful purchases singled out simply because they choose to exercise that right. This bill stops efforts to create a special system for identifying and organizing purchases made at firearm and ammunition retailers. While its proponents present this as simply an administrative tool, in practice it raises serious concerns about privacy and the unjust treatment of lawful conduct. Americans are increasingly concerned about how much information is collected, stored, and shared. Those concerns are especially valid when it comes to information being tracked that relates to the exercise of a constitutional freedom. Here is the reality: Tracking the lawful purchase of firearms and ammunition creates a framework for collecting information about law-abiding citizens who have done nothing wrong. My home State of Florida already prohibits this type of surveillance. Floridians understand something that most Americans agree with: Your bank should process your transaction, not track your activities. This bill prevents payment networks and financial institutions from requiring special codes for firearms retailers, while preserving existing tools used to combat fraud, protect consumers, maintain cybersecurity, and report suspicious activity. At its core, this legislation is about privacy, fairness, and the principle that the exercise of constitutional rights should never become the basis for surveillance. I thank the chairman and the bill’s sponsor for their work on this important issue. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1181.
“I want all members to vote for this bill to protect people's privacy.”
“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for this debate. I thank Mr. Moore for writing this bill, drafting it, persuading the support that he has. I urge all Members on both sides of the aisle to support this bill in the name of privacy in the United States. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.”
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for this debate. I thank Mr. Moore for writing this bill, drafting it, persuading the support that he has. I urge all Members on both sides of the aisle to support this bill in the name of privacy in the United States. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
