Senators Introduce SILVER Act to Diversify US Bullion Storage

GFN – WASHINGTON: United States senators introduced the SILVER Act, legislation that would require approved precious-metals depositories across all four domestic time zones, a move aimed at reducing the concentration of bullion storage in New York and addressing national security and competition concerns.

The bill, introduced by Senators Catherine Cortez Masto, Democrat of Nevada, and Jim Risch, Republican of Idaho, with a companion measure from Representative Russ Fulcher, Republican of Idaho, would amend the Commodity Exchange Act to require the approval of two depositories in each of the Mountain, Pacific, Eastern, and Central time zones.

The sponsors said (via MINING.com), the current concentration of approved storage facilities in New York City poses national security risks and enables anti-competitive market behavior, and that wider geographic distribution would strengthen liquidity, lower costs, and improve access to secure storage in Western states such as Nevada.

“The SILVER Act supports our mining industry and reduces the burdens placed on them so they can continue to thrive,” Cortez Masto said.

The legislation reflects increasing attention in Washington to the resilience of domestic precious-metals supply chains and to the infrastructure that underpins physical delivery in regulated futures markets, where the location of eligible vaulting capacity determines where metal can be settled.

The proposal also aligns with a broader policy emphasis on critical and strategic minerals, an area in which silver has drawn attention for its industrial and defense-related applications. The development underscores the growing intersection of commodity market structure and national security considerations in United States policy.