WASHINGTON — Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., has introduced a bill that would bar the Federal Reserve from issuing a Central Bank Digital Currency directly to individuals.
Emmer, who's been known to be an advocate of the cryptocurrency industry, introduced a very similar bill last year, and although his party controls the House, the measure is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate. Even so, Emmer's recent ascension to House majority whip gives his positions on crypto and banking-related issues more weight.
The bill's messaging repeats sentiments that Emmer has
"Any digital version of the dollar must uphold our American values of privacy, individual sovereignty, and free market competitiveness," Emmer said on Twitter. "Anything less opens the door to the development of a dangerous surveillance tool."
Emmer's bill would, among other measures, prohibit the Fed from directly offering "products or services directly to an individual." This would effectively ban the central bank from creating and offering a retail CBDC.
The bill would also not allow the use of CBDC "to implement monetary policy," and would require the Fed's Board of Governors to talk with regional Fed banks before offering a pilot program around CBDCs and issue quarterly reports on any pilot program.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has already cautioned that the central bank
Co-sponsors include Republican Reps. French Hill of Arkansas, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Byron Donalds of Florida, Pete Sessions of Texas, Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, Young Kim of California, Mike Flood of Nebraska and Ralph Norman of South Carolina.
