State Department must disclose payments-US Lawmakers
2022.12.07 05:07
State Department must disclose payments-US Lawmakers
Budrigannews.com – A proposal to add information about crypto rewards and payouts to the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 has been made by lawmakers in the United States.
Under the proposed amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the Department of State—an executive branch of the U.S. federal government that is in charge of the country’s foreign policy and relations—is required to report any crypto payouts or rewards within 15 days of their creation.
The U.S. Department of Defense’s annual budget and expenditures are outlined in a series of federal laws known collectively as the NDAA.
The official document read:
“Not later than 15 days before making a reward in a form that includes cryptocurrency, the secretary of State shall notify the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate of such form for the rewards.”
In addition to the 15-day information period, the State Department must justify the use of cryptocurrencies as rewards in a report to the Senate and House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Foreign Relations within 180 days of the act’s enactment.
Cryptocurrency rewards must be shown to encourage more whistleblowers to come forward than other “rewards paid out in the United States dollars or other forms of money or nonmonetary items,” according to the report.
The aforementioned report ought to also investigate the possibility that criminals could acquire additional “hard-to-trace funds that could be used for 16 criminal or illicit purposes” through the use of cryptocurrencies.
The State Department’s spending on cryptocurrency rewards could be more transparent with the proposed amendment. The primary argument used by policymakers to oppose cryptocurrencies is the use of cryptocurrencies for illegal purposes. If the policy is approved, it may also provide insight into the views of the federal government regarding this issue.
Following Biden’s executive order in March, the Biden government published the “first-ever” comprehensive framework for cryptocurrency in September of this year. The framework was compiled from nine separate reports on crypto published over the years and provided six main directions for crypto regulation in the United States.
