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South Dakota Governor Christy Noem has rejected a little-publicized but very important bill to make it easier for the federal government to implement a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Blocking House Bill 1193 will help him fend off one of the greatest threats to freedom facing Americans today.
Choosing to veto the bill, Republican Noem bravely fought his own party in control of the South Dakota Legislature. Hopefully legislators in other states will soon find out. Similar bills have been introduced in more than 20 of her other states, and Republicans and Democrats alike continue to push the bills forward despite many lawmakers claiming they oppose the development of a digital dollar. I’m here.
Similar bills are currently under consideration in many states, including Arkansas, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and California.
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Attempts to pass bills like HB 1193 nationwide are part of an effort to amend various parts of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). The UCC is not federal law, it is state law passed by all 50 states. It has existed for more than a century and continues to play an important role in ensuring that commercial activities run smoothly across state borders.
South Dakota Governor Christy Noem has vetoed a bill that would make it easier for the federal government to implement a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. (John Law)
The ever-changing nature of commerce requires the UCC to be updated from time to time, and that is precisely the purpose of legislation like this.
While many of the code amendments proposed in HB 1193 are worthwhile, the drafters of the legislation also included some very cumbersome and wholly unnecessary provisions. This would allow consumers to easily create a programmable, trackable and controllable central bank digital dollar for certain types of commercial activities should the federal government choose to create a central bank digital dollar in the future. can be used.
The existing UCC already includes provisions that allow the central bank’s digital currency to be effectively used in many commercial agreements. For the most part, instead of facilitating the use of CBDCs, which do not yet exist in any of the world’s major economies, UCCs should be modified to make them more difficult. Legislators should discourage rather than encourage the use of CBDCs.
In addition to the new wording that will apply to future CBDCs, the proposed amendments would make it harder for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to be considered “money.”
For these reasons and others, Noem has vetoed the bill.
It is important to note that the proposed update to UCC does not establish a digital currency nor require its future creation. However, it will help lay the foundation for central bank digital currencies or other government-mandated digital currencies in the future. The bill facilitated the use of CBDCs in certain types of transactions and did not contain any provisions prohibiting the use of programmable central bank digital currencies that apply to commercial law.
The amended UCC includes several provisions dealing with cryptocurrencies and future central bank digital currencies. For example, HB 1193 defines “electronic money”, but such has not yet been established by the major world economies.
Another section prevents all or nearly all existing cryptocurrencies and digital currencies from being considered “money” under the UCC, including Bitcoin. Therefore, only government-created currency may be considered electronic money under HB 1193 and similar bills offered in many other states.
This is very annoying. If Congress were to one day create an official programmable electronic currency, it would pose a grave threat to the liberty and privacy rights of Americans. So why would so many lawmakers want such a currency to be easy to use in their states?
Important provisions will impose detailed rules governing when a person is deemed to be “controlling electronic money.” Most disturbingly, the definition of “exclusive control” of e-money in Article 45 includes the clause “authority is exclusive”. or any system on which electronic money is recorded, restricts the use of electronic money, or has protocols programmed to cause change, including transfer or loss of control. ”
As the language clearly indicates, the UCC update was written specifically to describe the future development of programmable digital currencies or currencies created and/or controlled by governments. for currency.
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This is very annoying. If Congress were to one day create an official programmable electronic currency, it would pose a grave threat to the liberty and privacy rights of Americans. So why would so many legislators want to make such a currency easier to use in their states, and instead revise his UCC to make it harder to use CBDCs?
Programmable digital currencies can be easily controlled and tracked by government agencies and central banks. Wherever you go in the country, you can record anything you buy using digital dollars. Programmable digital currencies can also be manipulated so that they can only be used in certain circumstances, or designed to prevent Americans from purchasing certain products and services.
All of this may sound like a crazy sci-fi movie plot, but it’s not. The Federal Reserve has been studying the benefits of developing a programmable central bank digital currency for years, and President Joe Biden announced in March 2022 that the federal government would Ordered to weigh the cons.
In September 2022, Biden announced his “policy goals” for future digital currencies. He also instructed the federal government to study the matter further, met with leaders of key government agencies, including the National Security Council and the Treasury Department, with officials from the Federal Reserve Board “regularly,” “Discussed and updated working group progress…on CDBC and other payment innovations.”
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The Biden administration appears to be gearing up to develop and distribute a programmable digital dollar that the majority of voters don’t want. It’s very strange that you haven’t chosen to do everything in your power to discourage its use.
Noem was right in refusing to change the UCC. Legislators need to start over to make sure the UCC limits his CBDC use instead of enforcing it. Hopefully, other lawmakers will soon come to the same conclusion. Time is running out.
Click here to read more from Justin Haskins
