U.S. House passes anti-CBDC bill with unanimous support from Florida GOP delegation
WASHINGTON, D.C. – All of Florida’s Republican representatives voted in favor of a now-passed federal bill to prevent the executive branch of the U.S. government from enacting a central bank digital currency, also known as CBDC, without express congressional approval.
The legislation, called the “CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act,” was pushed by Minnesota Republican Rep. and Majority Whip Tom Emmer.
Florida has 20 representatives in D.C. that are Republican, all of which voted in favor.
Two Florida Democrats did not vote – Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and Lois Frankel – and the other six Democrats voted against it.
“This bill is straightforward. It halts unelected bureaucrats from issuing a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, that would be detrimental to Americans’ right to financial privacy,” said Patrick McHenry, Republican representative from North Carolina and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
“We’ve already seen examples of governments weaponizing their financial system against their own citizens,” he said. “For example, the Chinese Communist Party uses a CBDC to track spending habits of its citizens.”
McHenry said the Biden administration began looking into CBDC in 2022, causing more concern.
“If not open, permissionless, and private, a CBDC is no more than a CCP-style surveillance tool waiting to be weaponized,” he said.
Florida has its own anti-CBDC law, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2023.
“We prohibited CBDC in Florida more than one year ago,” DeSantis said Thursday afternoon.
In Florida, the use of CBDC is outlawed. The legislation signed last year aims to prohibit the U.S. Federal Reserve implementing such a digital currency that can be centrally tracked by the federal government in Florida.
“Once they then have the ability to run a central bank digital currency, they’re going to be able to have the window into what you’re doing with the money and have the ability to control where that money is going,” DeSantis said last year.
The Florida law bars CBDC from being treated as legal currency under Florida Uniform Commercial Code.
