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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Prohibits the Treasury from minting or issuing new one-cent (penny) coins, updates federal law to remove or renumber provisions that referenced the penny, and explicitly preserves existing one-cent coins as lawful money that can be used to pay debts, taxes, and other charges. It also states Congress’s exclusive constitutional authority to coin money and regulate its value.
Introduced May 1, 2025 by Jeff Merkley · Last progress May 1, 2025
Declares that Congress has the sole authority to coin money and regulate currency.
Prohibits the Secretary of the Treasury from minting or issuing a 1-cent coin.
Amend Title 31, United States Code, section 5112 by striking paragraph (6).
Amend Title 31, section 5112 by redesignating paragraphs (7) through (12) as paragraphs (6) through (11), respectively.
Amend Title 31, section 5112, subsection (b) by striking the eighth sentence.
Primary agencies affected: the Department of the Treasury and the United States Mint — they would be barred from producing new pennies and must update operations and planning accordingly. Directly affected economic actors include businesses that handle large volumes of coins (retailers, restaurants, banks, armored carriers, and coin-counting services) and operators of coin‑operated machines (vending, parking meters, laundromats) who may need to adapt to reduced penny availability over time. Consumers are minimally affected in the short term because existing pennies remain legal tender; over the long term, cash-transaction practices could shift (voluntary rounding, reduced penny use) but this legislation does not require or govern rounding. The statutory edits to the U.S. Code and a technical Internal Revenue Code cross‑reference reduce legal ambiguity where prior text assumed ongoing penny issuance; they do not create new tax obligations or spending mandates. Local governments and tax-collection entities retain legal authority to accept pennies for taxes and charges because the law preserves pennies’ legal-tender status. Overall impact is administrative for federal coinage operations and operational/practical for cash handlers, but no immediate fiscal burdens or new funding requirements are imposed.
Amends 31 U.S.C. 5112 by striking paragraph (6); redesignating paragraphs (7) through (12) as paragraphs (6) through (11), respectively; striking the eighth sentence of subsection (b); striking subsection (c); in subsection (i) replacing each place the term appears with "(6), (7), (8), and (9)"; in subsection (j) replacing "(7), (8), (9), or (10)" with "(6), (7), (8), or (9)"; and in subsection (v) replacing each place the term appears with "paragraph (11)".
In section 5113(a), strike the third sentence.
In section 5132(a), strike each place the term appears and insert "through (5)".
Amends 26 U.S.C. 408(m)(3)(A)(i) by striking "paragraph (7), (8), (9), or (10)" and inserting "paragraph (6), (7), (8), or (9)".
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Introduced in Senate