ARLINGTON, Va. — Today, FMI – The Food Industry Association and 210 national and state associations representing Main Street businesses in every state and community across the country sent a letter to the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives urging enactment of bipartisan legislation to address the ceased minting of the penny.
“Since the ceased minting of the penny last summer, grocery stores have experienced an inability to provide exact change to cash-paying customers and have had no choice but to round to the nearest nickel when exact change is unavailable. This has created confusion for customers, and grocers have been exposed to possible litigation and potential violation of federal, state, and local laws,” said Christine Pollack, FMI vice president of government relations.
To address the ceased minting of the penny, the Common Cents Act provides Main Street businesses with the ability to round to the nearest nickel for cash transactions when pennies are not available to make exact change and addresses continuity issues between this federal penny rounding solution and state, local, and tribal penny rounding laws that have been implemented in the past year.
Pollack continued, “The Common Cents Act is the federal solution to address the confusion faced by customers and the operations challenges that grocers and other Main Street businesses have encountered due to the ceased minting of the penny. Enactment of the Common Cents Act is of the utmost importance for grocery customers and food retailers.”
The U.S. House passed its version of the Common Cents Act (H.R. 3074) on July 14 by a voice vote. The U.S. Senate added a minor process clarification to its version of the bill (S. 1525) and passed it by unanimous consent on August 7. This Senate-passed version must now be considered by the House before it can be sent to President Trump to sign into law.
As noted in the multi-industry Main Street letter, enactment of S. 1525 by the U.S. House is critically important so that Main Street businesses and American consumers have certainty and consistency in their everyday cash transactions.
The text of the Main Street businesses’ letter on the Common Cents Act is linked here.
