GOP-controlled House passes Mooney's anti-digital currency amendment

Nov. 14—The Republican-controlled House has passed an amendment introduced by U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., that seeks to defund a Central Bank Digital Currency (CMDC) study by the Biden administration.

Mooney, also a candidate for U.S. Senate, said Congress has never given President Joe Biden any authority to create or study federal digital currencies.

However, Mooney said Biden still issued an executive order earlier this year directing federal agencies to study the creation of a digital dollar.

"Make no mistake: a federal digital dollar can very easily be used to spy on American citizens and become a social credit system" Mooney said in a statement Monday. "If this White House wants to research a government surveillance tool that the overwhelming majority of Americans oppose, that direction should come from Congress."

Speaking on the issue recently in Congress, Mooney said China already uses a digital dollar system to spy on its citizens.

"Do not think for a second the Biden administration will not use a digital dollar to track your gun purchases," Mooney said in his House floor speech.

The House passed Mooney's amendments to H.R. 4664, the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act to defund the CBDC Working Group and to block a Securities and Exchange rule targeting small businesses.

Mooney said the first amendment prohibits funding for the CBDC Working Group led by the Department of Treasury. A CBDC is commonly known as a digital dollar, or a form of digital currency that doesn't involve physical cash dollars.

Mooney said the creation of a digital dollar could lead to government surveillance of purchases and the elimination of cash.

The second amendment, also passed by the House, blocks the SEC's "Private Fund Adviser Rule." Mooney said that rule places burdensome compliance costs on private funds, which primarily invest in small businesses across America and in West Virginia.

"Given high interest rates and the new capital rules that will further restrict bank lending to companies, now is not the time to restrict the ability of private funds to invest in West Virginia's thousands of small businesses." Mooney added. "This is nothing more than regulating for the sake of regulating."

Mooney has been in the news a lot lately because he is challenging Republican Gov. Jim Justice for the GOP nomination for West Virginia's U.S. Senate seat in 2024.

With incumbent Democrat Joe Manchin's announcement last week that he will not seek re-election, that contest is now looking like a two-person race between Mooney and Justice with the winner likely being decided during the May 2024 primary.

Prior to last week, Manchin was the only high-profile Democrat in the running for the U.S. Senate seat in now deeply red West Virginia.

Recent polling in the race has shown Justice beating both Mooney and Manchin in the contest.

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com. Follow him @BDTOwens