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119-hr-10167119th CongressWALLET

Common Cents Act

Sponsored By: Representative McClain, Lisa C. [R-MI-9]

Passed Senate

Summary

Ending the penny and creating a nationwide cash-transaction rounding system to phase out the one-cent coin, change the 5-cent coin's composition, and set reporting and oversight for the shift.

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  • Families and cash users: Cash totals can be rounded to the nearest 5 cents when exact change is not available, and very small totals of one or two cents may be rounded up to five cents. Rounding does not apply to cards, checks, gift cards, or electronic payments.
  • Businesses and employers: The law lets the 5-cent coin include a zinc inner layer and nickel outer layer to lower production impact on coin machines. Employers may round cash wage payments to the nearest 5 cents when wages are not already a multiple of 5 cents. The 1-cent coin stops being minted for circulation but remains legal tender and can be produced as collector items.
  • Federal Reserve, Treasury, and oversight: The Federal Reserve must publish a strategic plan within 90 days and provide follow-up evaluations and progress reports over the next 30 months. The Treasury must assess penny supply, rounding effects, and impacts on low-income, older, unbanked, and underbanked people and share findings with Congress.

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

4 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 0 costs, 3 mixed.

Workers’ cash pay would round up

Employers choosing to round cash payments to employees would have to round up to the nearest 5 cents. This would apply only to payments not already divisible by 5 cents. Employers would remain free to pay the exact amount instead, and the underlying wage rate would not change.

Cash shoppers would face optional rounding

When exact change is unavailable, cash totals including taxes, or change owed to customers, would qualify for optional 5-cent rounding. Under standard rounding, endings of 1, 2, 6, or 7 cents would round down; 3, 4, 8, or 9 would round up. Amounts ending in 0 or 5 cents would stay unchanged; $0.01 or $0.02 totals would qualify for rounding to $0.05. Sellers would also have permission to round payments down, or money owed up, in the customer’s favor. Checks, cards, electronic transfers, gift cards, money orders, and similar non-cash payments would be excluded. Following the bill’s rounding rules would not, by itself, violate federal, state, tribal, or local requirements. Minimum-wage, overtime-pay, and paid-leave requirements would still apply.

Everyday penny production would end

Treasury would stop making pennies for everyday use, but pennies issued before enactment would remain legal tender. Treasury would still be allowed to make pennies for collectors. Before stopping circulation production of the covered coin, Treasury would coordinate with the Mint director and notify Congress’s banking committees. That notice would be due at least 60 days ahead and include fiscal reasons, operational reasons, and a phase-out plan. The plan would consider consumers, businesses, and the economy; Treasury would brief the committees within 30 days after notice.

Treasury would test cheaper nickel designs

Treasury would have authority to approve a 5-cent coin with a zinc center and nickel outer layer. Tests would need to show lower production costs and, as far as practical, minimal harm to coin-accepting machines.

Sponsors & CoSponsors

Sponsor

McClain, Lisa C. [R-MI-9]

MI • R

Cosponsors

  • Rep. Garcia, Robert [D-CA-42]

    CA • D

    Sponsored 8/27/2026

Roll Call Votes

No roll call votes available for this bill.

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