Senate kicks bill making gold, silver legal tender back to House with strike-all amendment

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Gov. Ron DeSantis backs a proposal to give precious metals the power of currency. But the Senate and House are far apart on what that bill should look like.

The Governor has said he would sign HB 999, passed last week by the House.

The legislation would remove sales tax for “coins or currency sold, exchanged, or traded based on precious metal content,” per a bill summary from the House. It would also exempt gold or silver coins from sales tax and would allow governmental entities to accept them as legal tender, and would establish guidelines for custodians of these instruments and establish consumer protections.

The Senate has also now passed the bill. But a Senate strike-all amendment will force the House to consider more ambitious language as the policy part of Session nears an end.

While the Senate language “recognizes and gold silver coin as legal tender for payment of debts,” it also mandates “additional requirements regarding privately ensuring deposits’ security, record keeping, and maintaining separate ledger accounts for money services that effectuate transactions involving gold or silver coin,” according to Republican Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez, the bill’s sponsor.

The Senate bill also requires the Chief Financial Officer and the Financial Services Commission to “adopt rules to implement the bill” and submit them to the Legislature by Nov. 1.

“The rules must be ratified by the Legislature before becoming effective, and DFS must submit a report to the Legislature containing the adopted rules, additional statutory recommendations and possible unintended consequences. The bill does not take effect until July 1, 2026 unless reenacted by the Legislature,” Rodriguez added.

Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman noted the lack of a feasibility study in the legislation, which the sponsor said was consistent with the original form of the legislation.

“I think the bill takes a very measured approach,” Rodriguez said, noting that there is no requirement to accept gold and silver as payment.

Berman noted her concerns, including “fraud in the gold dealing market” and her belief that a “gold standard would be disastrous.” But neither she nor any other Democrat voted against the bill.

Democratic Sen. Tracie Davis noted that former CFO Jimmy Patronis commissioned a feasibility study, saying it was a “complex” endeavor and not necessarily “conducive to commercial activities in the modern era.”

Rodriguez trusted agencies to do due diligence and bring forth recommendations, and said “our CFO, whoever it may be, will be able to make the right — or at least analyze the findings properly.”

The sponsor noted that the rules must be adopted to implement the bill between the Department of Financial Services and the Office of Financial Regulation, and those won’t be the “final product.” Rather, the Legislature will provide “further direction” in the 2026 Session.