House panel advances bill to end penny production, lawmakers debate consumer impacts

Representative McLean called up HR 3,074, the Common Sense Act, asking the committee to give the Treasury flexibility to stop producing the 1¢ coin and to require cash transactions be rounded to the nearest 5¢. The committee adopted McLean’s amendment in the nature of a substitute as the base text and later voted to report the bill to the House, 35–13.

The bill’s chief sponsor, Representative McLean, said minting the 1¢ piece costs substantially more than its face value and argued retirement would save taxpayer dollars. “The United States mints an estimate…that it costs nearly 3¢ to produce just 1 penny,” McLean said, adding that continued production had cost the government in recent years and that other countries have phased out 1¢ coins without disrupting commerce.

Opponents on the committee said ending penny production without clear rounding rules could harm low‑income and cash‑reliant consumers. Ranking Member Waters urged delay, proposing an amendment to create a task force of local and state representatives to study impacts and recommend implementation guidance. Waters told the committee, “Through this bill, we would literally nickel and dime low income communities who do not see pennies as real money and real value.” The committee rejected Waters’ amendment in a recorded vote (ayes 21, nays 26).

Other members echoed concerns about how rounding would be applied at the point of sale — item‑level versus transaction‑level — and whether retailers, customers or government would set rounding rules. Several members pointed to differences in production costs across denominations: a committee member noted the penny’s production cost as 3.7¢ in one exchange and the nickel’s cost as roughly 13.8¢ in another, and Chairman Lucas said the Mint reported a 1¢ production cost of about 4¢ and that the Mint lost $85 million last year on 1¢ production.

Supporters said the bill does not eliminate the coin’s legal‑tender status and that existing pennies would remain legal tender. Representative Lucas described the change as giving the Mint flexibility to respond to the economics of coin production and highlighted historical precedent for retiring coins he called “no longer practical.”

The committee recorded final action to order HR 3,074, as amended, favorably reported to the House by a recorded vote (ayes 35, nays 13). The committee also postponed some recorded votes associated with amendments earlier in the markup before finalizing the report vote.