In a blow to the ever-growing virtual Panopticon Americans find themselves in, the House of Representatives has passed a bill aimed at preventing “unelected bureaucrats from issuing a financial surveillance tool to fundamentally undermine our American values.” Andrew Throuvalas of Decrypt.co reports:
The U.S. House passed legislation on Thursday to stop the Federal Reserve from issuing a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) without Congressional approval.
The final vote tally for Rep. Tom Emmer’s CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act was 216 ‘yea’ to 192 ‘nay,’ including support from 213 Republicans and three Democrats. This follows the bill’s passage through the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) last year, which received zero support from Democrats at the time.
Emmer celebrated the bill’s passage, tweeting that it “prevents unelected bureaucrats from issuing a financial surveillance tool to fundamentally undermine our American values.”
For more than two years, we have worked to educate, grow support, and pass this important legislation, which prevents unelected bureaucrats from issuing a financial surveillance tool to fundamentally undermine our American values.
— Tom Emmer (@GOPMajorityWhip) May 23, 2024
“My legislation ensures that the United States’ digital currency policy remains in the hands of the American people so that any development of digital money reflects our values of privacy, individual sovereignty, and free market competitiveness,” he continued. “This is what the future global digital economy needs.”
The bill marks the third solely crypto-focused legislation taken up by the House this month, after the passage of a pro-crypto banking resolution and the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21), which drew support from 21 and 71 Democrats, respectively.
Both bills—largely backed by Republicans—aligned in their goals to make operating crypto businesses in the United States easier, loosening the reigns held by the largely hostile Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Emmer’s bill took a different tack from the FIT21 legislation, aiming to prevent the government and central bank from leveraging crypto for nefarious ends in the form of a CBDC. Unlike private market, decentralized cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether, CBDCs would be issued and controlled directly by a government bank, with value directly linked to the nation’s fiat currency.
Action Line: Americans don’t need a currency that can track them, restrict them, or be taken from them with forced negative interest rates. They deserve a good hard currency that will hold its value and be there when they need it. When you want to talk about your portfolio, I’m here. In the meantime, click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.
