Brianna Kraemer
Carolina Journal
The North Carolina General Assembly has taken the final steps to approve a bill that bars the federal government from executing a central bank digital currency in the Tar Heel State in the event that the Federal Reserve moves forward with the controversial addition to our monetary system.
The Senate reconvened Monday in Raleigh and voted 27-17 to override the Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto. With a three-fifths supermajority approving the override, as required by law, House Bill 690 received just enough support in the Senate to become be enacted despite the governor’s objections. The Republican supermajorities in both the House and Senate had enough support despite Democrat legislators reversing their support just a few months ago, after originally supporting the measure.
“It’s an opportunity for us to send the signal that North Carolina, the ninth largest state in the union, is not interested in a federal central bank digital currency,” Sen. Brad Overcash, R-Gaston, told the Carolina Journal following the floor vote.
The bill forbids payments to the State of North Carolina using a CBDC and prohibits the state from participating in the Federal Reserve branch’s testing of any future CBDC. In 2022, the Federal Reserve published a report on the ‘US dollar in an age of digital transformation,’ which the government agency said was the first step in a public discussion between the Federal Reserve and stakeholders about central bank digital currencies.
While all Republican senators voted in favor of overriding the veto, there were no Democrats supporting the legislation this time around. Nearly all Democrats voted for the legislation during the regular legislative votes in June.
Overcash was excited that the bill jumped the final hurdle required to become law, but noted the politics among his opposing colleagues.
“It was just over two months ago that it passed through the Senate, 39 to five,” Overcash noted. “I reminded my colleagues of that on the floor today, and I think it is pure politics. I think once they saw Roy Cooper veto the bill, they fell in line and just copied his lead, which is really unfortunate. The General Assembly, as a legislative body, we ought to be making policy and making good law and not following the political leaders of the Democrat Party.”
At the end of June, the General Assembly passed the bill in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote; the Senate passed the bill 39-5 and the House passed it 109-4. The bill was vetoed by Cooper soon thereafter. After a month hiatus, the House returned and voted to override the veto, though that chamber experienced a similar flip — 41 Democrat representatives ultimately opposed the bill in late July.
With the bill now enacted as law, North Carolina is statutorily bound avoid participation in any digital currency schemes sponsored by the Federal Reserve.
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