Two senators want to know: What’s the legal basis for suspending enforcement of the CTA?

Two senators behind the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) have demanded that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent justify his suspension of one of the law’s anti-money laundering (AML) requirements.

On Monday, in a letter to Bessent, U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) asked for the “legal basis” on which Bessent is relying on to suspend enforcement of the CTA’s requirement that domestic and foreign reporting companies file their beneficial ownership information (BOI) with the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

“This is a matter of public and congressional accountability and ensuring that relevant policy interests underlying the CTA are satisfied,” the senators wrote. “We encourage you to fully implement the CTA so that law enforcement agencies around the country have access to information necessary to prevent human trafficking, terrorist financing, border smuggling, drug distribution, and many other categories of criminal activity.”