Emmer reintroduces anti-CBDC bill alongside 49 Republicans

The law would block the Fed from issuing a retail CBDC and seeks to protect consumer privacy, Emmer said

article-image

US Rep. Tom Emmer | Permissionless II by Blockworks

share

Tom Emmer, the House majority whip from Minnesota, on Tuesday announced the reintroduction of his anti-CBDC bill, joined by 49 fellow Republicans. 

The Central Bank Digital Currency Anti-Surveillance State Act aims to block the Federal Reserve from directly offering a CBDC to individuals and using it to implement monetary policy. 

Emmer first brought the bill to the House floor in February. 

“Any digital version of the dollar must uphold our American values of privacy, individual sovereignty and free market competitiveness,” Emmer said in a statement at the time. “Anything less opens the door to the development of a dangerous surveillance tool.”

The legislation targets the potential for CBDCs to impact Americans’ privacy and rights, Emmer added. 

“This bill puts a check on unelected bureaucrats and ensures the US digital currency policy upholds our American values of privacy, individual sovereignty, and free-market competitiveness,” Emmer wrote on X, formerly Twitter, Tuesday. 

The bill comes as congressional leaders continue to spar with each other and federal agencies over how to regulate the crypto industry. 

Five crypto-related bills in the House are slated to go to a full-floor vote after passing through Committee markups this session. The Financial Innovation and Technology (FIT) for the 21st Century Act, co-sponsored by French Hill, R-Ark., Glenn Thompson , R-Penn., and Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., and the Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act, introduced by Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., received fairly promising bipartisan support during their markup stages.   

SEC Chair Gary Gensler appeared before senators Tuesday morning to discuss how the agency enforces its rules. In his opening remarks, Gensler maintained that the agency is acting in investors’ best interest by taking an aggressive stance against crypto firms he says are not following appropriate and long-established securities laws. 

“Given this industry’s wide-ranging noncompliance with the securities laws, it’s not surprising that we’ve seen many problems in these markets,” Gensler said during the hearing. “Thus, we have brought a number of enforcement actions — some settled, and some in litigation — to hold wrongdoers accountable and promote investor protection.” 

Gensler is scheduled to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Sept. 27.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the On the Margin newsletter.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Salt Lake City, UT

MON - TUES, OCT. 7 - 8, 2024

Blockworks and Bankless in collaboration with buidlbox are excited to announce the second installment of the Permissionless Hackathon – taking place October 7-8 in Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ve partnered with buidlbox to bring together the brightest minds in crypto for […]

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Permissionless is a conference for founders, application developers, and users. Come meet the next generation of people building and using crypto.

recent research

Blinks Report Image.png

Research

Blinks enable the ability to vampire attack user monetization of existing networks by inserting onchain and financialized functionalities directly within the popular social feeds and digital experiences of today.

article-image

Plus, how the FTX collapse played out in Asian countries

article-image

Kalshi founder Tarek Mansour said Thursday marked the “the first trade on regulated election markets in nearly a century”

article-image

I was excited about being on the precipice of realigning societal incentives and solving many issues plaguing our modern financial world

article-image

Cypherpunk Holdings has rebranded to Sol Strategies in a pivot to a Solana-first investment approach

article-image

BitGo’s wrapped bitcoin (wBTC) has a new custodial challenger

article-image

Make no mistake: Tether makes a ton of money. But exactly how much depends a lot on the price of bitcoin.