[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2154 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2154

To authorize additional appropriations to the Federal Trade Commission 
 to prevent unfair or deceptive acts or practices relating to digital 
 tokens and transactions relating to digital tokens, and to require a 
   report to Congress on the Commission's actions related to digital 
                                tokens.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 9, 2019

    Mr. Soto (for himself and Mr. Davidson of Ohio) introduced the 
   following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and 
                                Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To authorize additional appropriations to the Federal Trade Commission 
 to prevent unfair or deceptive acts or practices relating to digital 
 tokens and transactions relating to digital tokens, and to require a 
   report to Congress on the Commission's actions related to digital 
                                tokens.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Digital Taxonomy Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS TO PREVENT UNFAIR OR DECEPTIVE 
              ACTS OR PRACTICES RELATING TO DIGITAL TOKENS.

    There is authorized to be appropriated to the Federal Trade 
Commission $25,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2020 through 2024 to 
prevent unfair or deceptive acts or practices in transactions relating 
to digital tokens pursuant to section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission 
Act (15 U.S.C. 45).

SEC. 3. DEFINITION OF DIGITAL TOKENS.

    As used in this Act--
            (1) the term ``digital token'' means a digital unit--
                    (A) that is programmed with rules that govern its 
                creation, supply, ownership, use, and transfer, where 
                such rules are designed to resist modification or 
                tampering by any single person or persons under common 
                control;
                    (B) that has a transaction history that--
                            (i) is recorded in a distributed, digital 
                        ledger or digital data structure in which 
                        consensus is achieved through a mathematically 
                        verifiable process; and
                            (ii) after consensus is reached, is 
                        designed to resist modification or tampering by 
                        any single person or persons under common 
                        control;
                    (C) that is capable of being transferred between 
                persons in a decentralized fashion without an 
                intermediate custodian; and
                    (D) that is not a representation of a financial 
                interest in a company or partnership, including an 
                ownership or debt interest or revenue share; and
            (2) the term ``digital unit''--
                    (A) means a representation of economic, 
                proprietary, or access rights that is stored in a 
                computer-readable format; and
                    (B) does not include a store of value.

SEC. 4. REPORT TO CONGRESS.

    Beginning one year after the date of enactment of this Act and each 
year thereafter, the Federal Trade Commission shall transmit a report 
to the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives 
and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 
Senate of--
            (1) any actions taken by the Commission relating to unfair 
        or deceptive acts or practices in transactions relating to 
        digital tokens;
            (2) the Commission's plan to prevent unfair or deceptive 
        acts or practices relating to digital tokens; and
            (3) any recommendations by the Commission for legislation 
        that would to improve the ability of the Commission and other 
        relevant Federal agencies--
                    (A) to further protect consumers from unfair or 
                deceptive acts or practices in the digital token 
                marketplace; and
                    (B) to promote the competitiveness of the United 
                States and promote innovation of businesses in the 
                global digital token sector.

SEC. 5. PRESERVATION OF AUTHORITY.

    Nothing in this Act shall supersede the authority of the Commodity 
Futures Trading Commission nor prevent the treatment of digital tokens 
as commodities subject to the Commodity Exchange Act (7 U.S.C. 1a et 
seq.).
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