In June 1985, Thurmond introduced legislation providing stiffer federal penalties for individuals and financial institutions engaged in laundering money earned from activities of illegality. The bill, supported by the Reagan administration as it sought to expose the financial activities of criminals, was hailed by Thurmond as "an important step in our continuing war on organized crime and those financial institutions and individuals which hide the ill-gotten assets of law-breakers, especially drug traffickers." American Bar Association, American Bankers Association and American Civil Liberties Union officials charged the proposal with largely removing privacy laws imposed by the federal government and state governments that were established to prevent unchecked examinations of the bank records of individuals from authorities.