We’re checking in on the progress of the push to introduce the central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the US – and the latest is that a number of senators oppose President Biden’s plans on this front.
CBDCs are controversial for a number of issues, not least because of centralizing (and thus better controlling) financial activities and therefore privacy of regular citizens, but also potentially stomping out political critics by depriving them of access to their funds.
Related: Inside Biden’s plan to destroy financial anonymity with CBDCs
And it is a key component of the looming introduction of digital ID and payments.
Now, a group of five senators has put together a legislative proposal, the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act, in a bid to block the Fed’s efforts to issue this type of digital money in the US.
Ted Cruz, Bill Hagerty, Rick Scott, Ted Budd and Mike Braun are behind the initiative to ban the digital dollar scheme from coming to fruition.
Their concerns, as the bill’s name suggests, are civil rights and freedoms that might suffer because of increased surveillance CBDCs have the power to facilitate.
We obtained a copy of the bill for you here.
The goals of the bill, among others, are for the Federal Reserve not to be given the right to “use central bank digital currency for monetary policy, offer services directly to individuals, and for other purposes.”
Senators Scott and Budd made it clear in their comments that the reason for their opposition is that the digital dollar would “open the door for the federal government to surveil and control the spending habits of all Americans.”
Cruz noted that one of the consequences of harvesting sensitive personal information through a CBDC system would be the ability to quickly and efficiently freeze people’s assets “for any reason.”
According to Cruz, “The Biden administration salivates at the thought of infringing on our freedom and intruding on the privacy of citizens.”
This is not a speculative scenario, since various governments/banks have already been doing this even without CBDCs, in order to suppress even lawful civil dissent.
And if in the future the Fed were to issue the digital dollar, it would have to turn to Congress for authorization, the bill envisages.
Another prominent opponent of the introduction of the CBDC in the US is former President Donald Trump, currently campaigning to get reelected.
Of the world’s 193 states, 16 have working CBDC schemes, while pilots are trialed in 39 others – among them China and Iran.
