Capito, Kennedy Introduce Bill to Prevent Collection of Small Business Owners’ Personal Data

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Recently, U.S. Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and John Kennedy (R-La.) introduced a bill to prevent the U.S. Treasury Department from unnecessarily collecting small business owners’ personal information. “I’m proud to support this legislation that reins in unnecessary data collection and puts U.S. small businesses’ privacy first,” Senator Capito said. “For too long, hardworking Americans—including many West Virginians—have faced overly broad reporting requirements that do little to enhance security while also exposing their sensitive personal information. This bill takes a targeted, responsible approach that ensures oversight efforts are focused where they matter most, while lifting an undue burden.” “When an obscure government policy requires small business owners to fork over personal data that even our government admits it doesn’t need, it’s time to change that policy. That’s why I’m leading the bill to permanently end this burdensome mandate and keep law-abiding Americans’ personal information out of a database it should never have been in,” Senator Kennedy said. In addition to Senators Capito and Kennedy, U.S. Senators Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), and Jim Banks (R-Ind.) also joined in introducing the bill. BACKGROUND: Under 2021’s Corporate Transparency Act , the federal government began mandating the collection of certain individuals’ Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI), including small business owners’ full legal names, dates of birth, addresses and unique identifying numbers. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) ultimately found these reporting requirements to be overly onerous and intrusive for small businesses. By March 2025, FinCEN issued a rule narrowing the scope of the data collection to foreign reporting companies, pausing the collection of many Americans’ data. Full text of the legislation can be found here . # # #