"Hmm some say this CBDC is good but there are others who don't, which one is this?"
The debate on Capitol Hill erupted when the House Financial Services Committee approved a bill to stop the Federal Reserve's (Fed) plan to implement a United States (US) Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
The law aims to protect citizens' privacy and prohibit the Fed from conducting any surveillance actions, commented US Congressman Tom Emmer.
However, Rep. Democrat Maxine Waters criticized the move, claiming Republicans are taking an anti-innovation stance that could leave the US behind in the race to set global standards for CBDC.
Not only that, he also warned that US citizens could suffer losses in speed, cost-effectiveness including simplicity for payment systems in the future if CBDC development is not done now.
However, the bill may face some obstacles in the Senate because the Senate Banking Committee led by Senator Sherrod Brown does not share the same position as House Republicans on digital assets.
Oversight Vice Chairman Michael Barr said the Fed would have to get direction from the White House and legislative approval from Congress if they still want to create a CBDC.
So here it can be seen that the future of the bill is still uncertain as the Senate led by Democrats is not expected to give a very warm welcome regarding the matter.
For information, every bill in the US needs to receive approval from the House of Representatives (majority Republicans), before being approved by the Senate (majority Democrats) which will then be signed by President Joe Biden to be implemented as law.
