[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3248 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 3248

To prohibit money services businesses from engaging in any transaction 
 that involves a central bank digital currency issued by the People's 
               Republic of China, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            November 8, 2023

   Mr. Scott of Florida (for himself, Mr. Cruz, and Mrs. Blackburn) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
            Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To prohibit money services businesses from engaging in any transaction 
 that involves a central bank digital currency issued by the People's 
               Republic of China, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Chinese CBDC Prohibition Act of 
2023''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) In 2021 testimony before the House Committee on 
        Financial Services, Yaya Fanusie, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the 
        Center for a New American Security, noted that the People's 
        Republic of China is pushing aggressively to become a global 
        leader in financial technology, and the People's Republic of 
        China is in a position to launch the largest digital currency 
        project of any major economy. Additionally, the Chinese central 
        bank digital currency will provide the Chinese Communist Party 
        with data on its users, and bolster the social credit program 
        of the Party, ultimately furthering the punitive control power 
        of the Party over Chinese citizens.
            (2) On April 28, 2021, Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Board 
        of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, stated, ``The 
        [digital] currency that is being used in China is not one that 
        would work here. It's one that really allows the government to 
        see every payment for which it is used in real time.''.
            (3) According to Sir Jeremy Fleming, Director of the 
        Government Communications Headquarters of the United Kingdom, 
        ``Control is also a major driver for Beijing as it seeks to 
        build a centralized digital currency. Yes, it introduces 
        efficiencies and new ways of settling payments. But the way 
        it's being implemented allows the monitoring of citizens and it 
        forces companies to use the service. It might, in future, also 
        enable China to partially evade the sorts of international 
        sanctions currently being applied to Putin's regime in 
        Russia.''.

SEC. 3. MONEY SERVICES BUSINESSES.

    (a) In General.--Subchapter II of chapter 53 of title 31, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 5337. Money services businesses
    ``(a) Definition.--In this section, the term `money services 
business' has the meaning given the term in section 1010.100 of title 
31, Code of Federal Regulations.
    ``(b) Transactions Involving Digital Currency of the People's 
Republic of China.--No money services business may engage in any 
transaction, directly or indirectly, that involves a central bank 
digital currency issued by the People's Republic of China.''.
    (b) Technical and Conforming Amendment.--The table of sections for 
subchapter II of chapter 53 of title 31, United States Code, is amended 
by adding at the end the following:

``5337. Money services businesses.''.
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