Cbdc Anti-Surveillance State Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. DAVIDSON. Madam Chair, I rise in strong support of banning central bank digital currency. Why do we do this? As Congressman Hill pointed out, Congress clearly has the Article I authority under the United States Constitution over money, and we should exert that.
In the absence of exerting that with respect to central bank digital currency, the Federal Reserve is plowing right ahead. They are actively hiring programmers to write code to develop a central bank digital currency. To have colleagues say: Oh, well, they won't turn it on, to me is equivalent to having the Empire in Star Wars build the Death Star but promising not to turn it on.
Once it exists, it poses a threat, and they are not responding to Congress right now. They are not. They are not listening to our values that are reflected in our Constitution to protect our civil liberties. In fact, our colleagues are encouraging them not to. They are saying in their own words: Oh, we have to be more like China.
The version of central bank digital currency, the version that Project Hamilton is embracing, is the same version China is developing, and it is being developed all over the world with more than 100 countries looking at implementing a central bank digital currency all under the same model that the Bank for International Settlements, the central bank for the central bankers in Switzerland, is proposing, and it is the same creepy surveillance tool that the Chinese Communist Party is using, which is centrally managed, centrally filtered.
What definition is used here? Well, I am not sure that we could gather that from Mr. Sherman's comments, but it is the same definition that was used on March 9 in 2022 when the Biden administration released Executive Order 14067. The definition of H.R. 5403, this bill, is the same definition that we are addressing chosen by the Biden administration.
We want to ban that.
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Mr. DAVIDSON. Madam Chair, we don't want to ban that just to establish it. We want to ban the development of it.
Another fallacy that they point out though is that this would turn off research. No, by all means, study it, find all the problems with it, and make sure that the people know: Don't go down this path.
That is the point of this bill.
If Congress uses Article I authority to subsequently set the parameters, as is our constitutional obligation, we could do that with a subsequent bill. The reality is, the Federal Reserve is not responding to dialogue. They need to respond to a law.
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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Chair, I rise to support Mr. Mooney's amendment.
The CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act demonstrates House Republicans' unwavering and thorough conviction that the Federal Reserve must not issue or develop a central bank digital currency without expressed authorization from Congress.
While I support this bill wholeheartedly, I think it can go further with this amendment by being clear. Word weasels want to come up with phrases like pilot. Oh, we are not really doing that.
Yes, you are. The pilot project represents a first step that we could take, and, as you see, the Federal Reserve is spending time and resources building a team, actively hiring and staffing, and outsourcing for this. It is logically consistent that this pilot could be developed to something further.
Mr. Mooney's amendment will not only remove the CBDC pipeline the Fed is already building, but it will also ensure that any future efforts to test or research CBDC are approved by Congress.
Mr. Chair, I urge all of our colleagues to support this amendment and this bill.
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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Chair, I applaud Congressman Emmer's hard work on getting this important piece of legislation to where it is today. I am encouraged that so many of my colleagues like Mr. Hill, Mr. McHenry, Mr. Huizenga, Mr. Barr, Mrs. Wagner, and subcommittee chairs on Financial Services are united on this. I wish that extended across the aisle because central bank digital currency is the creepiest surveillance tool known to man.
Every dystopian fiction out there whether ``Brave New World,'' ``1984,'' what I consider Scriptures, the ``Book of Revelation,'' shows the corruption of money from its proper use as a store of value and a means of exchange into a tool for coercion and control, something that can filter people's access to their own money and their ability to use it in a free society.
Why would we enable it? Everywhere it is depicted as evil. Why would we even tolerate that, but our own government is doing it. Frankly, the underlying text prevents the Federal Reserve from establishing a central bank digital currency, and this amendment is important because we should be clear: We don't want them to design it; we don't want them to build it; we don't want them to do development work on it; and we certainly don't want them to issue it. That authority is reserved for Congress.
There may come a point where our form of money looks different than it does today, but it should always have the characteristics of permissionless peer-to-peer payments like cash. Saying: But cash is one option in the system, doesn't cut it when the whole underlying architecture becomes permissioned, conditioned on your ability to be granted access to your own property from a central government.
This is a bad system, and it is great today for us to have the opportunity to ban it.
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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Chair, the gentlewoman correctly recognizes that we are piling on. We want it to be absolutely clear to the word weasels in the executive branch that try to find a way to scheme and maneuver and even, in spite of Supreme Court rulings, come up with new executive orders whether it is forgiving student debt, launching climate change initiatives, banning bump stocks, pistol braces, warrantless searches, you name it. They have got a way to get past the clear intent of Congress. We want to close every possible venue, absolutely.
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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Chair, I think we have made it clear with the amendments, with our statements, and with the bill text that we need to ban central bank digital currency. Do not let them design, develop, or build a death star only to promise not to turn it on.
We need to prevent the Federal Reserve from doing this. All this should make it clear that that is the clear intent of Congress.
Mr. Chair, I encourage all of our colleagues to unite in support of this bill and this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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