(By Beryl Amedée, State Representative from District 51 and Chairman of the Louisiana Freedom Caucus)

As people across this country continue to suffer through the horrors of the Biden Administration’s disastrous policy choices, it is prudent for Louisiana to take action to mitigate the new and equally bad outcomes from policies their socialist/Marxist advisors still seek to achieve. One of their key initiatives is to create a cashless society through a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) controlled by the government.

Their dreams of a “digital dollar” would be catastrophic to individual liberty and privacy. It is always a good idea to listen when people tell you what they want to do—as the Biden White House has done here.

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Set aside for a moment that our government would no longer have to print money. It could just add zeroes in a computer to exponentially add to government spending and inflation. It would hand to the federal government control over your personal money–how much you have, where it is located, and how you are allowed to spend it.

Want to buy a new gun or ammunition? Not allowed. Want to buy gasoline for your car? Nope, they banned cars running on fossil fuels. Want to buy a house? Let’s see, what does your social credit score say? If you think this is some sort of “conspiracy theory,” I’ve got news for you: it’s already happening in other countries and is a goal of the tyrannical Left for America, including our current occupant of the White House.

President Biden issued Executive Order 14067 (March 9, 2022), ‘Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets,’ establishing a broad interagency effort to develop and study a U.S. CBDC. As directed, federal agencies have been studying and developing a CBDC “digital dollar,” including testing with several money-center banks in the fourth quarter of 2022.

On Monday, in the state legislature’s House Committee on Commerce, my bill HB357 banning CBDC will come up for its hearing. Lawmakers concerned about the loss of privacy and control from CBDC should exercise every available means to stop this in its tracks, and my bill does that in a proactive, targeted, and limited manner.

This bill does not preclude the establishment of a CBDC, as under current law Congress alone has the authority to authorize a CBDC. It does, however, bar the use of CBDC as a deposit account in the state of Louisiana. Legislators do have the authority to limit the usage of a CBDC under the LA Uniform Commercial Code. Other states such as North Dakota, Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Tennessee are working to safeguard their residents from the fallout of these reckless actions.

My bill passed last session but was vetoed by tyrant and former Governor John Bel Edwards. We are confident of a better outcome in working with Governor Jeff Landry.

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Beryl Amedée is the State Representative from District 51 representing Assumption, Lafourche, St. Mary, and Terrebonne Parish and is the Chairman of the Louisiana Freedom Caucus.