A bill that would free up federal funding to help local law enforcement investigate financial scams passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday. 

The Guarding Unprotected Aging Retirees from Deception Act (GUARD) attempts to address a common complaint from the victims of online scams like pig butchering — that such cases typically do not rise to the level of a federal investigation but local law enforcement is unequipped to properly investigate them. 

The bipartisan bill introduced by Reps. Zachary Nunn (R-IA), Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) would allow law enforcement to use existing federal grant money to investigate cases involving financial fraud, including by hiring analysts and experts in such crimes. 

They could also use the funds for training on how to help victims of financial fraud and exploitation and how to use blockchain intelligence tools to trace stolen cryptocurrency and identify perpetrators. The grant money could be used to purchase software to conduct financial investigations and to designate a point of contact for financial institutions to share information with law enforcement agencies.