North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper has chosen to veto a bill that would prevent the state from using a digital currency issued by the Federal Reserve, despite overwhelming support in the House and Senate.
The decision, which has been criticized as politically motivated, was explained by Cooper in a statement on June 5. He described House Bill 690 as premature, vague, and reactionary, leading him to reject it.
Cooper’s veto came after a landslide vote of 109-4 in the House and 39-5 in the Senate at the end of June. With such strong support, North Carolina lawmakers could overturn the veto with a three-fifths majority in both chambers.
The Governor’s decision was met with disappointment. Mitchell Askew, a native of North Carolina and head analyst at Blockware Solutions, expressed his frustration, stating that Cooper’s veto did not reflect the wishes of the state’s residents. He also criticized the Governor for prioritizing partisan politics over the potential benefits of the proposed law.
Similarly, Dan Spuller, the head of industry affairs at the Blockchain Association, saw Cooper’s veto as a missed opportunity to show that North Carolina is strongly against a central bank digital currency.
Despite these developments, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stated during a Senate Banking Committee hearing in March that the U.S. was far from considering or adopting a digital currency issued by the central bank in any form.
The veto by Governor Cooper has sparked a debate on how the digital yuan could impact the world, for better or for worse.