H. R. 5404

Introduced in House (03/22/2018)

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5404 Introduced in House (IH)]

 






115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5404

            To define the dollar as a fixed weight of gold.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 22, 2018

 Mr. Mooney of West Virginia introduced the following bill; which was 
            referred to the Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
            To define the dollar as a fixed weight of gold.

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

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The United States dollar has lost 30 percent of its 
        purchasing power since 2000, and 96 percent of its purchasing 
        power since the end of the gold standard in 1913.
            (2) Under the Federal Reserve's 2 percent inflation 
        objective, the dollar loses half of its purchasing power every 
        generation, or 35 years.
            (3) American families need long-term price stability to 
        meet their household spending needs, save money, and plan for 
        retirement.
            (4) The Federal Reserve policy of long-term inflation has 
        made American manufacturing uncompetitive, raising the cost of 
        United States manufactured goods by more than 40 percent since 
        2000, compared to less than 20 percent in Germany and France.
            (5) Between 2000 and 2010, United States manufacturing 
        employment shrunk by one-third after holding steady for 30 
        years at nearly 20,000,000 jobs.
            (6) The American economy needs a stable dollar, fixed 
        exchange rates, and money supply controlled by the market not 
        the government.
            (7) The gold standard puts control of the money supply with 
        the market instead of the Federal Reserve.
            (8) The gold standard means legal tender defined by and 
        convertible into a certain quantity of gold.
            (9) Under the gold standard through 1913 the United States 
        economy grew at an annual average of four percent, one-third 
        larger than the growth rate since then and twice the level 
        since 2000.
            (10) The international gold exchange standard from 1914 to 
        1971 did not provide for a United States dollar convertible 
        into gold, and therefore helped cause the Great Depression and 
        stagflation.
            (11) The Federal Reserve's trickle down policy of expanding 
        the money supply with no demand for it has enriched the owners 
        of financial assets but endangered the jobs, wages, and savings 
        of blue collar workers.
            (12) Restoring American middle-class prosperity requires 
        change in monetary policy authorized to Congress in Article I, 
        Section 8, Clause 5 of the Constitution.

SEC. 2. DEFINE THE DOLLAR IN TERMS OF GOLD.

    Effective 30 months after the date of enactment of this Act--
            (1) the Secretary of the Treasury (in this Act referred to 
        as the ``Secretary'') shall define the dollar in terms of a 
        fixed weight of gold, based on that day's closing market price 
        of gold; and
            (2) Federal Reserve Banks shall make Federal Reserve notes 
        exchangeable with gold at the statutory gold definition of the 
        dollar.

SEC. 3. DISCLOSURE OF HOLDING.

    During the 30-month period following the date of enactment of this 
Act, the United States Government shall take timely and reasonable 
steps to disclose all of its holdings of gold, together with a 
contemporaneous report of any United States governmental purchases or 
sales, thus enhancing the ability of the market and of market 
participants to arrive at the fixed dollar-gold parity in an orderly 
fashion.