The U.S. House Financial Services Committee recently approved the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act (H.R. 1919), with 27 members voting in favour of it while 22 opposed it.
Most of those who supported the bill believed it would help Americans retain their power over their digital currency, reinforcing traditional American values of privacy and individual sovereignty.
Tom Emmer re-introduced the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act in March
In 2023, Congressman and Majority Whip Tom Emmer introduced his anti-CBDC bill. The bill then received approval from the House Financial Services Committee and the House of Representatives in 2024. Afterwards, the bill advanced to the Senate; however, the voting schedule was not set before the 118th Congress concluded in January.
Later, on March 6, Emmer reintroduced the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act to stop the federal government from creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC), claiming that doing so would allow the government to overreach and endanger the financial privacy of Americans.
Emmer even referred to CBDCs as programmable money under government control that could allow the U.S. government to “choke out” politically unpopular activities.
Moreover, he acknowledged that the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act guaranteed that the American people and not the administrative state would control the country’s digital currency policy. He added that the bill preserves the values of privacy, sovereignty, and free market competitiveness.
Democrats fought efforts to prohibit CBDCs
Democratic lawmakers earlier slammed efforts to ban CBDCs, claiming the moves stifled innovation. In support of this, Rep. Maxine Waters claimed that stopping CBDC development would cause the United States to lose out on cutting-edge payment methods, ultimately weakening the dollar’s status as the global reserve currency.
By October 2023, roughly 134 countries and currency unions, representing 98% of global GDP, were exploring a CBDC, according to the Atlantic Council’s CBDC tracker. Interestingly, 66 of those countries had reached an advanced stage of investigation.
In January, the hard Right-wing President Donald Trump even signed an executive order to “protect” Americans from CBDCs, which could threaten American sovereignty, financial stability, and personal privacy. Notably, dependable reports have shown similarities between the new executive order and the reintroduced anti-CBDC bill.
Additionally, Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman, announced in February that he wouldn’t have his agency issue any digital currency. In January, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said he has “no reason” to think the country needs a CBDC.
Meanwhile, the House Financial Services Committee decided to move forward with the stablecoin regulation bill.
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