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Two House Committees – Financial Services and Judiciary – held hearings this week on the legislation intended to rein in Operation Choke Point. Implemented nearly two years ago by the Department of Justice in coordination with some bank regulators, Operation Choke Point denies essential banking services to companies engaged in lawful business activities that some government officials don’t like. I testified in favor of the bill, H.R. 4986, sponsored by Missouri Republican Blaine Luetkemeyer, at both hearings.

Operation Choke Point is a particularly egregious example of an unconstitutional abuse of power that ought to alarm and frighten each of us, irrespective of our ideology, party affiliation, or view of the particular products or services being cut off.

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[I was invited to testify on July 17, 2014 before a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee investigating Operation Choke Point, a highly controversial, not to mention un-Constitutional, program implemented about two years ago by the Department of Justice in collaboration with various other agencies. The program is designed to deprive essential banking services to lawful businesses that unelected government officials consider “undesirable” or “high risk.” My schedule did not allow me to testify in person at the hearing so I submitted the following statement for the record]:

Subcommittee Chairman: The Honorable Spencer Bachus
Ranking Member: The Honorable Hank Johnson

TESTIMONY
of
WILLIAM M. ISAAC
SENIOR MANAGING DIRECTOR,
FTI CONSULTING, INC
FORMER CHAIRMAN,
FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION

before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
AND CONSUMER CREDIT

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES
WASHINGTON, DC

July 15, 2014

Chairman Caputo, Ranking Member Meeks, and members of the Subcommittee, I am profoundly grateful that you are holding this hearing on “Operation Choke Point.” The opinions I express today are my own, and I do not purport to speak on behalf of my firm, FTI Consulting, Inc. In the interest of full disclosure, some of FTI’s clients have an interest in the matters before the Subcommittee today.