By Kevin McCauley
Gephardt Group Government Affairs has been hired by Crane & Co. to fight any Congressional push to end production of the $1 bill.
That Massachusetts-based company has continually supplied currency paper to the U.S. Treasury since 1879.
The Government Accountability Office has issued five reports over the past 20 years that show Uncle Sam could save billions by retiring the dollar bill.
The Congressional watchdog this month found a transition from paper to coin would save the cash-strapped country $4.4B over a 30-year period.
“With the current budget situation that we’re all aware of, we felt Congress needs to be aware of all the viable options for gaining financial benefits, and replacing the dollar note with a dollar coin provides such a benefit over the long term,” Lorelei St. James, GAO’s director-physical infrastructure, said in releasing the latest report, requested by Massachusetts’ Republican Senator Scott Brown.
Brown preferred to concentrate on the GAO’s upfront transition costs.
The GAO found that the U.S. would lose $531 during the initial ten years because of the higher production cost of coin vs. paper money.
Brown also noted that the government has $1.2B in excess $1 coins in its vaults, indicating to him that Americans prefer paper money. He also noted that the Bay State would lose hundreds of jobs with the switch to a coin dollar.
Brown’s Democratic counterpart, John Kerry, has introduced legislation to kill the coin dollar.
Former Majority Leader and Democratic presidential candidate Dick Gephardt leads the effort for Crane.
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