Insight
Does the Senate Finance Committee have something against thrifts?
Does the Senate Finance Committee have something against thrifts? Thrifts were inexplicably left out of an exception to the proposed tax on remittance transfers in the Senate Finance draft of title VII of the Big Beautiful Bill.
The language exempts transfers that are withdrawn from an account in a financial institution "which is described in subparagraph (A), (B), (C), (D), (E), (G), or (H) of section 5312(a)(2) of title 31, United States Code...." This language references the following subparagraphs in the Bank Secrecy Act's definition of "financial institution" (conspicuously skipping (F)):
(A) an insured bank (as defined in section 3(h) of the [FDI Act])
(B) a commercial bank or trust company
(C) a private banker
(D) an agency or branch of a foreign bank in the United States
(E) any credit union
(F) a thrift institution
(G) a broker or dealer registered with the [SEC]
(H) a broker or dealer in securities or commodities
What's going on here? My first guess was that the staff of the Finance Committee (which deals with the budget) does not include lawyers familiar with the arcane mysteries of FDI Act definitions, under which "insured banks" does not include "insured savings associations." But it seems odd that you would so conspicuously leave out something without looking up what it is. So my current theory is that it's just a mistake. Or am I missing an even more arcane provision that loops thrifts back in?