New Update on the Central Bank Digital Currency Anti-Surveillance State Act

This important legislation has been passed in the House of Representatives and will now go to the United States Senate.

Here I reported that House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., had reintroduced the Central Bank Digital Currency Anti-Surveillance State Act, a Republican-backed bill that aims to prevent the Federal Reserve and its member banks from issuing a digital version of the dollar (CBDC) and using it to implement monetary policy.

H.R. 5403 is a related bill “to amend the Federal Reserve Act to prohibit the Federal reserve banks from offering certain products or services directly to an individual, to prohibit the use of central bank digital currency for monetary policy, and for other purposes.”

This bill, H.R. 5403 has been passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 216-192, according to a press release from the House Financial Services Committee.¹

Here are Chairman Patrick McHenry’s (NC-10) remarks on the House Floor in support of H.R. 5403: