US lawmakers have proposed an amendment to the State Department’s Basic Authorities Act of 1956 that includes information about cryptocurrency rewards and payments.
The proposed amendment under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) requires the Department of State, the executive branch of the US federal government responsible for foreign policy and relations, to report any payments or rewards paid out in cryptocurrency in a within 15 days from its completion.
The NDAA is the name for each of a series of US federal laws that specify the budget and annual expenditures of the US Department of Defense.
The document says:
“No later than 15 days before paying a reward in a form that includes cryptocurrency, the Secretary of State shall notify the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee of such reward form.”
In addition to the 15-day reporting period, the Department of State must also submit a report to the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee within 180 days of enactment of the law, justifying the use of cryptocurrencies as rewards.
The report should include evidence suggesting that cryptocurrency rewards would encourage more whistleblowers to cooperate compared to other “rewards paid in US dollars or other forms of money or non-monetary items.”
Such a report should also examine whether the use of cryptocurrency could provide bad actors with additional “difficult to trace” funds that could be used for 16 criminal or illicit purposes.
The proposed amendment could offer more transparency about State Department spending on cryptocurrency rewards. Once approved, the policy could also offer insight into the federal government’s views on the use of cryptocurrency for illicit activities.a popular argument used by policy makers to lash out at digital assets.
The Biden administration published the ‘first’ comprehensive framework for cryptocurrencies in September of this year, following the President’s executive order in March of this year. The framework offered six main directions for the regulation of cryptocurrencies in the US. The framework is the sum total of 9 different reports on crypto assets over the years combined together.
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