This week, the House of Representatives will vote on legislation sponsored by House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) called the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act. The bill is relatively straightforward, but in sum would stop the Fed from issuing any form of CBDC without congressional approval.
The legislation is expected to pass in the House, where Republicans hold the majority, and could even earn some bipartisan support. But the bill faces a tougher battle in the Democratic-controlled Senate and would have to get a stamp of approval from President Joe Biden should it become law before the next session of Congress.
A central bank digital currency is a form of digital currency issued by a central bank — in the case of the United States, that would be the Fed. With a CBDC, consumers would be able to use the digital currency issued directly by the Fed in addition to physical money such as cash.
In theory, a CBDC allows users to easily transfer money between digital wallets and buy goods and products all using the same node, which is the central bank. That might sound similar to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, but the difference is that a CBDC would be issued directly through one entity, the Fed, rather than maintained on a decentralized public ledger, as bitcoin is.
While the use of a central bank digital currency might sound convenient and the centralization of the currency organized, Republicans argue that a CBDC could be used nefariously to undermine people’s civil liberties and spy on them.
Emmer told the Washington Examiner during an interview ahead of the vote that he sponsored the bill to prevent abuses of government and protect privacy rights. He said China is already using its digital yuan to surveil its citizens.
“They control all the data that comes from your financial transactions, and they are building social scores,” Emmer said of China. He also said that during the pandemic lockdowns in Wuhan, China, the Chinese government was able to control the finances of residents so they couldn’t buy transportation out of the city.
Read more at Washingtonexaminer.com
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