House Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota (R) introduced a bill last week that seeks to ban the Federal Reserve from procuring and releasing a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
According to a press release on Emmer’s website:
Emmer introduced the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act to halt efforts of unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that strips Americans of their right to financial privacy.
The bill also holds the Federal Reserve’s CBDC research and development programs accountable to the American people.
Specifically, the legislation prohibits the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC directly to an individual, mobilizing itself into a retail bank able to collect personal information on all Americans. The bill also bars the Federal Reserve from using any CBDC to implement monetary policy, ensuring the Federal Reserve cannot use a CBDC as a tool to control the economy. Additionally, it requires that the Federal Reserve Board of Governors consult each Federal Reserve bank about the development of a CBDC study or pilot program and issue a quarterly report to Congress on their progress and findings. The federal government must be held accountable to the American people.
The bill was co-sponsored by Republican colleagues Representatives French Hill (Arkansas), Warren Davidson (Ohio), Mike Flood (Nebraska), Byron Donalds (Florida), Pete Sessions (Texas), Andy Biggs (Arkansas), Young Kim (Kim), Ralph Norman (Norman) and Barry Loudermilk (Georgia).
Emmer has been a longtime advocate that any Fed-issued digital dollar (central bank digital currency) remain open, permissionless and private. The CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act expands upon Emmer’s bill from the 117th Congress, which would have also prohibited the Fed’s direct issuance of a CBDC to individuals.
Emmer added in a statement,
Any digital version of the dollar must uphold our American values of privacy, individual sovereignty and free market competitiveness. Anything less opens the door to the development of a dangerous surveillance tool.
After all, America remains a technological leader not because we force innovations to adopt our values under regulatory duress, but because we allow technology that holds these values at their core to flourish.
Warren Davidson also said in a statement,
The Fed must focus on its dual mandate rather than eradicating financial autonomy. A retail CBDC would essentially allow the government to mediate all transactions, which would mirror what we see in China. It’s vital to ensure this does not happen here.
He said
Others like Mike Flood said,
In a digital age, cryptocurrency represents new economic opportunities for America – but it’s critical for private sector innovators to take the lead. The American dollar has long been a symbol of prosperity and freedom, and our digital currencies should be the same. The Chinese Communist Party’s move to use government-run digital currency to impose further control on its people and its economy is a cautionary tale that America must avoid.
The CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act is a key step towards ensuring that Americans maintain their financial freedom by prohibiting a centrally controlled digital currency as our economy continues to innovate in the area of digital assets.
He stated
Moreover, Byron Donalds stated,
As the Federal Reserve continues its study of central bank digital currencies, one thing has become clear – CBDCs pose a clear threat to Americans’ financial independence. Rather than following the lead of oppressive regimes like China and Russia, we should dramatically decrease the federal government’s involvement in personal finances and look to the free market to guide the way regarding innovation.
CBDCs are a major trend for 2023 worldwide, as central bank globally are working to rapidly introduce CBDCs and stablecoins of their own to facilitate virtual transactions.
The Federal Reserve has already been piloting their own Digital Dollar with some of the largest banks in the U.S., and have already been testing a carbon-based social credit scheme and investing.
BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) and others are working to implement their stablecoins as well.
SEE: Norway Is Close To Releasing A CBDC And Totally Remove The Use Of All Cash
Last year G20 leaders vowed that they would all be working to further their work to issue their own CBDCs. In their declaration they wrote:
We support continued implementation of the G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-Border Payments, including the future delivery of the initial estimates for key performance indicators and 2022 Progress Report that sets out priorities for the next stage of work. We encourage central banks, other public authorities and the payments industry to continue to work collaboratively on these important initiatives to enhance cross-border payments. We welcome the report by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) on interlinking payment systems and the role of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that was presented in a joint workshop by the Indonesian G20 Presidency in coordination with the BIS CPMI and the BIS Innovation Hub (BISIH) on cross-border payments and interoperability at the Festival Ekonomi Keuangan Digital Indonesia (FEKDI) 2022. We also welcome the joint report by the BIS CPMI, BISIH, IMF, and World Bank on options for access to and interoperability of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) for cross-border payments.
We welcome continued exploration of how CBDCs could potentially be designed to facilitate cross-border payments, while preserving the stability and integrity of the international monetary and financial system. We welcome the successful completion of the G20 TechSprint 2022, a joint initiative with the BISIH, which has contributed to the debate on the most practical and feasible solutions to implement CBDCs.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
Fat chance this ever gets passed. This will just get forgotten about and never touched on, if not flat-out rejected. And even if it were to pass, it still will not matter. The Feds will come out with their digital dollar whether people like it or not. Fact. And the people will accept it, plus a social credit score, digital ID, and more.
These politicians work for the Federal Reserve. The Feds do what they want and all these people bend the knee to them. The Feds are in control on the financial. NO ONE in Washington runs anything in this regards. Anyone who things otherwise is quite ignorant and decieved.
For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
Amos 5:12
Howbeit that does not mean we should not fight them: we need to fight them, hard. The world may accept them but you don’t.
SEE: Ways To Resist And Slowdown The Introduction Of Central Bank Digital Currencies
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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Well, if this Rep dies in a mysterious plane crash, we will know that he was sincere.