August 25, 2006 The Honorable Richard Shelby The Honorable Michael Oxley Chairman, Committee on Banking, Chairman Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on Financial Services United States Senate United States House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20510 Washington, D.C. 20515 Dear Chairman Shelby and Chairman Oxley: advertisements We write this letter to request a hearing in our home state of Minnesota so that you might hear firsthand about the importance of maintaining vital remittances between our country and the homelands of our immigrant communities. Our home state of Minnesota has been one of the most welcoming to those seeking refuge from violence, persecution, and want. Thousands of immigrants from many parts of the world have found a better life for themselves and their children in Minnesota, and have become valuable members of our community. At the same time, they have not forgotten their families, friends and communities back in their native lands. One way these immigrants have supported their friends and family back home is through cash remittances. For the Somali community in Minnesota, this has been an especially important means of providing support to loved ones in their troubled homeland. According to the World Bank, the total amount of these remittances is between $800 million and $1 billion a year. To put this in perspective, this is approximately $100 per capita for a country with a per capita income of only $600 per year. Clearly, the money sent to their homeland by the Somali community in Minnesota and elsewhere in the country is vital – and often the difference between life and death. That is why we have been concerned to hear from the Somali community in Minnesota, and other stakeholders, that the flow of life-saving remittances has been severely threatened as a result of guidance issued in April 2005 by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) and the federal banking agencies. We are concerned that the guidance has failed to strike the appropriate, albeit difficult, balance among important national security, commercial, and social interests. In the post-9/11 world, we fully understand and support reasonable efforts to ensure that our global financial system is not used to launder money and otherwise facilitate terrorism and criminal enterprises. According to reports, our efforts in the five years since those attacks have significantly impaired terrorist financing, and have been instrumental in counterterrorism operations such as the recent successful arrest of the terrorist plotters in London. That said we believe it is possible to achieve the balance between preventing money laundering and terrorist financing, and permitting legitimate remittance flows. We believe a field hearing in Minnesota would allow Congress to hear from interested parties about the need to achieve this balance and the means with which we can do it. We look forward to working with you on this important issue. Respectfully, _____________________________ _____________________________ Mark Kennedy - Norm Coleman Member of Congress - United States Senator Add Comment-- View Comment
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