Subcommittee Dollar Coin Hearing | Council For Citizens Against Government Waste

Subcommittee Dollar Coin Hearing

Letters to Officials

November 27, 2012

U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Financial Services
Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Subcommittee Member,

As you know, the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology will be holding a hearing on “The Future of Money: Dollars and Sense” on Thursday, November 29. One of the measures to be discussed is the transitioning of the $1 note to the $1 coin. The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) has long advocated eliminating the inefficient $1 note and replacing it with the $1 coin, which the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has stated in six separate reports over 22 years would save the government hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

In its most recent report released in February 2012, the GAO estimated that switching to the $1 coin would save at least $4.4 billion over 30 years, or $146 million per year – all without raising taxes or cutting any programs. This report builds on GAO’s March 2011 report, which cited $5.5 billion in savings over a 30-year period. Bipartisan bills have been introduced in both the House and the Senate to accomplish this goal, H.R. 2977 and S. 2049, the Currency Optimization, Innovation, and National Savings Act.

The United States is alone among industrialized countries in having such a low value for its paper currency. Canada, the European Union, Japan, and other nations switched to the $1 coin and have experienced cost savings far greater than their initial estimates. There is sufficient evidence to believe that GAO’s most recent cost-savings estimate is also too low. Prior GAO estimates relied on a replacement ratio of 2:1 coins to notes, which is consistent with the experience of most other modern that made the transition in recent decades. Accordingly, the replacement ratio most likely to occur would generate far greater savings than the GAO’s most recent estimate, which relies on a 1.5:1 replacement ratio.

On behalf of CCAGW, I strongly urge you to support the $1 coin and hope that you will be able to participate at the hearing. I would be happy to answer any questions about the dollar coin in advance of or subsequent to the hearing.

Sincerely,

Tom Schatz
President, CCAGW