House GOP wants to cash out dollar bill
By Pete Kasperowicz - 09/27/11 01:13 PM ET
Several House Republicans have introduced legislation to retire the dollar bill and replace it with a mandated dollar coin. A couple of senators, however, have introduced a competing measure to protect the paper dollar from, as they say, the "unpopular one dollar coin."
Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) and two other House Republicans — including supercommittee co-chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) — introduced legislation last week aimed at retiring the paper dollar. Schweikert said his bill would save $184 million a year and $5.5 billion over 30 years by transitioning to a dollar coin in four years, or as soon as $600 million worth of dollar coins are in circulation.
Schweikert said three billion paper dollars are shredded every year, and the constant need to destroy these dollars and create new ones is a cost the government can no longer bear. He said metal coins would last longer and therefore save money.
"At a time when we are staring down a record-breaking $1.3 trillion deficit, any commonsense measure that cuts billions needs to be given serious consideration," he said of his Currency Optimization, Innovation and National Savings (COINS) Act. "That is exactly what the COINS Act will do and why I am introducing it."
But Sens. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) introduced a competing bill over the weekend, the Currency Efficiency Act. That bill is aimed at protecting the paper dollar from what the senators call a "massive overproduction" of the "unpopular one dollar coin."
"The one dollar coin is misleading because it costs taxpayers so much more," Brown said. "In fact, we have over $1 billion worth of extra one dollar coins sitting idle in vaults and that's set to double over the next several years."
The Brown-Kerry bill would prevent the minting of $1 coins when a surplus exists. The two senators argue that $1.2 billion worth of dollar coins is sitting in the Federal Reserve's vaults, not in circulation, which is adding to the Fed's storage costs.
The Dollar Coin Alliance, which favors the House bill, says the two Massachusetts senators have a specific reason for wanting to protect the dollar bill, arguing that the Senate bill is aimed at protecting Massachusetts-based Crane & Co., the sole-source supplier of paper used to produce dollar bills.
"Unfortunately, it seems the senators have chosen to protect a local business at the expense of the American taxpayer," said Jim Kolbe, the honorary chairman of the alliance and a former congressman from Arizona. "At a time when the government needs to be looking to save every dollar, we can't continue to play the same Washington game of serving narrow special interests with half-measure legislation."
While there were no signs of movement on either bill this week, supporters of the House bill were optimistic that the COINS Act could move, particularly given Hensarling's support for it. The supercommittee on which he serves is charged with finding $1.5 trillion worth of deficit savings over the next decade.
http://thehill.com/
Dollar bill or dollar coin?
