I 

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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 

4 Congress finds the following: 

5 (1) The United States dollar has lost 30 per6 cent of its purchasing power since 2000, and 96 per7 cent of its purchasing power since the end of the 

8 gold standard in 1913. 

9 (2) Under the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent in10 flation objective, the dollar loses half of its pur11 chasing power every generation, or 35 years. 


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1 (3) American families need long-term price sta2 bility to meet their household spending needs, save 

3 money, and plan for retirement. 

4 (4) The Federal Reserve policy of long-term in5 flation has made American manufacturing uncom6 petitive, raising the cost of United States manufac7 tured goods by more than 40 percent since 2000, 

8 compared to less than 20 percent in Germany and 

9 France. 

10 (5) Between 2000 and 2010, United States 

11 manufacturing employment shrunk by one-third 

12 after holding steady for 30 years at nearly 

13 20,000,000 jobs. 

14 (6) The American economy needs a stable dol15 lar, fixed exchange rates, and money supply con16 trolled by the market not the government. 

17 (7) The gold standard puts control of the 

18 money supply with the market instead of the Fed19 eral Reserve. 

20 (8) The gold standard means legal tender de21 fined by and convertible into a certain quantity of 

22 gold. 

23 (9) Under the gold standard through 1913 the 

24 United States economy grew at an annual average of 


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1 four percent, one-third larger than the growth rate 

2 since then and twice the level since 2000. 

3 (10) The international gold exchange standard 

4 from 1914 to 1971 did not provide for a United 

5 States dollar convertible into gold, and therefore 

6 helped cause the Great Depression and stagflation. 

7 (11) The Federal Reserve’s trickle down policy 

8 of expanding the money supply with no demand for 

9 it has enriched the owners of financial assets but en10 dangered the jobs, wages, and savings of blue collar 

11 workers. 

12 (12) Restoring American middle-class pros13 perity requires change in monetary policy authorized 

14 to Congress in Article I, Section 8, Clause 5 of the 

15 Constitution. 

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

17 Effective 30 months after the date of enactment of 

18 this Act— 

19 (1) the Secretary of the Treasury (in this Act 

20 referred to as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall define the dol21 lar in terms of a fixed weight of gold, based on that 

22 day’s closing market price of gold; and 

23 (2) Federal Reserve Banks shall make Federal 

24 Reserve notes exchangeable with gold at the statu25 tory gold definition of the dollar. 


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1 SEC. 3. DISCLOSURE OF HOLDING. 

2 During the 30-month period following the date of en3 actment of this Act, the United States Government shall 

4 take timely and reasonable steps to disclose all of its hold5 ings of gold, together with a contemporaneous report of 

6 any United States governmental purchases or sales, thus 

7 enhancing the ability of the market and of market partici8 pants to arrive at the fixed dollar-gold parity in an orderly 

9 fashion. 

Æ 


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