Austin Scott: “I rise in support of H.R. 3703. This is a very timely and important piece of legislation because as you may recall, the…”

“I rise in support of H.R. 3703. This is a very timely and important piece of legislation because as you may recall, the Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 requires retailers, including vending machines that are located on Federal property, to both accept and disburse $1 coins by January of 2008. We are talking about 7 weeks from now. That brings about the urgency and the timeliness of the matter. This requirement additionally applies to transit systems, military bases, and those that take Federal subsidies. Now, while most vending machines are already programmed and able to accept $1 coins, there are very few that are programmed to dispense $1 coins. So that is why this legislation is needed, to exempt those vending machines from dispensing requirements that do not have a reason to dispense the $1 coins in the first place. So that in effect, Mr. Speaker, if we do not pass this bill, we will have unintendedly affected a hindrance of the circulation of the coins by compelling them to be stored in vending machines that will never dispense them. This legislation targets machines that have only $1 in currency and exchange. So you can see there will never be a need for the machine to dispense $1 coins. We believe that these Presidential $1 coins are very important. They should be circulated. The public should circulate them, but certainly having them stored in a vending machine from which they will never be dispensed is not the way to do that.”