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House Bends on Proposed FinCEN Budget Cuts
By Colby Adams
printPlanned budget cuts that would limit cooperation between regional investigators and the U.S. Treasury Department's financial intelligence unit would be nixed under the latest congressional appropriations bill. The department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) proposed the approximately $3 million reduction to its 2012 budget as part of a department-wide effort to scale back costs, but state and local law enforcement officials lobbied against the cuts, which would restrict their access to the bureau's Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) database. On June 15, lawmakers proposed keeping FinCEN's funding at nearly $111 million, the same amount the agency received in fiscal year 2011....
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