The USA PATRIOT Act, which arguably violates more than a few Amendments to the Bill of Rights, has been interpreted to label full-time RVers (among others) as terrorists and has forbid them from accessing the US Banking System. The truth of this declaration is revealed when you know the formal name of the act, which is Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT). Clearly lawmakers spent way more time working on a clever acronym than they did considering the impact their legislation would have on law-abiding, tax-paying American citizens.

The legislation requires banks to obtain proof of a “residential” address as one of the minimum requirements for a bank account. How this is supposed to prevent terrorism is a mystery, as a terrorist would likely have a “residential” address.1 This requirement disastrously impacts full-time RVers, as well as Freelance Workers, Farm Workers, Traveling Nurses, Work Campers and any other person or group that lives transiently.

This problem was made possible by FinCEN – the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which is the U.S. Financial Intelligence (?) Unit of the U.S. Treasury. They’re obviously working hard to spend as many tax dollars as they can stopping RV terrorists (disguised as full-time happy campers) from using banks to fund their devious plans of Fire & Ice, which is more often referred to by RV terrorists as campfires and cold drinks. A glance at the budget for FinCEN makes it clear no one there has a problem writing big checks. They literally have more money than they know what to do with.