The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held a hearing focused on debanking and published Chairman Tim Scott’s opening remarks, in which he framed access to financial services as a core fairness issue and accused federal financial regulators of pressuring financial institutions to cut off services. Scott said the committee will work to find solutions and argued that federally legal businesses and law-abiding citizens should not be denied access based on political or ideological views. The remarks highlighted reports of service terminations affecting digital asset firms, political figures, and conservative-aligned businesses and individuals, which Scott described as “Operation Chokepoint 2.0”. He identified witnesses including Anchorage Digital’s chief executive, whose Office of the Comptroller of the Currency-chartered bank he said was debanked, Old Glory Bank’s chief executive, and legal and policy experts including from the Brookings Institution. The hearing will examine whether practices resembling the original Operation Chokepoint have persisted and will investigate the roles of regulators and financial institutions. Scott also pointed to a release of previously unseen supervisory documents by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and quoted Acting Chair Hill’s characterization that certain actions sent the message that it would be “extraordinarily difficult—if not impossible” to proceed with crypto-related activities. He said the hearing was the beginning of the committee’s work to develop a bipartisan response and hold responsible parties accountable.

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