State Sen. Scott Hutchinson is shown in this file photo.

Sen. Scott Hutchinson and Sen. Doug Mastriano have put forward a piece of legislation to fight back against an executive action by the Biden Administration.

It’s SB 797 and it’s currently before the Senate’s Banking and Insurance Committee and would prohibit the use of a “Central Bank Digital Currency” in the Commonwealth.

“In March 2022, President Biden issued an Executive Order directing government agencies to produce a detailed plan to study the potential creation of a CBDC in the United States,” according to a legislative memo. “In March 2023, the Department of Treasury stated that a consortium of government agencies will meet regularly in the coming months to discuss whether to officially adopt a CBDC controlled by the US Government.”

“While the Federal Reserve has made no decisions on whether to pursue or implement a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, we have been exploring the potential benefits and risks of CBDCs from a variety of angles, including through technological research and experimentation,” the Federal Reserve said. “Our key focus is on whether and how a CBDC could improve on an already safe and efficient U.S. domestic payments system.”

The Federal Reserve defined a CBDC as a “digital liability of a central bank that is widely available to the general public.

“Today in the United States, Federal Reserve notes (i.e., physical currency) are the only type of central bank money available to the general public,” according to the Fed. “Like existing forms of money, a CBDC would enable the general public to make digital payments. As a liability of the Federal Reserve, however, a CBDC would be the safest digital asset available to the general public, with no associated credit or liquidity risk.”

Hutchinson and Mastriano do not take such a rosy view about how such a currency might work.

“A CBDC directly controlled and issued by the government would give government bureaucrats the ability to see all consumer activity and the power to cut off access to goods and services for consumers,” they claim in the memo.

“A federal government that has the ability to track every citizen’s transaction, control the kinds of things people can buy, and the amount that could be purchased at a single time is a terrible Orwellian nightmare.”

Their prohibition, they note, will not affect decentralized digital currencies like Bitcoin and is similar to legislation approved in Florida.

“Our legislation will protect PA’s consumers and businesses from the reckless adoption of a ‘centralized digital dollar’ which would stifle innovation and promote government-sanctioned surveillance. Pennsylvania must reject policies that threaten personal economic freedom and security,” the senators write.