Congress proposes criminal liability for issuing CBDC

Republican from Ohio in the U.S. House of Representatives Warren Davidson urged Congress to ban and then criminalize efforts to design, create, modify, test, or launch CBDC.

In the legislator’s view, CBDC turns money into a tool of coercion and control. ФРС is building the financial equivalent of the «Death Star», he added.

Thus, Davidson reacted to the ФРБ Сан-Франциско vacancy for “Senior Crypto Architect”, who would be tasked with participating in the digital dollar project.

The lawmaker explained that money is meant to be a stable store of value and should not be programmable by a central authority.

“Sound money is created for seamless peer-to-peer transactions”, — stated the Republican.

In March 2023, U.S. Representative Tom Emmer spoke out against the digital dollar. In his view, CBDC technology insults American values and could contribute to “financial control” over citizens.

Earlier he introduced a bill to protect “financial privacy” in the use of central bank digital currency. The main provision of the document is a prohibition on the Fed from distributing CBDC to individuals.

In April, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz called the launch of a national digital currency dangerous for society.

In May, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis promised to defend the first cryptocurrency if elected head of state.

In July, one of Kennedy Republicans’ rivals — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — отметил, that if he wins the election he will make decisions that “support Bitcoin and the freedom to transact, allowing people to manage their wallets, nodes and passwords”.

In June, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong described the upcoming U.S. elections as a key moment for regulating digital assets.