US House passes cash rounding bill as pennies disappear
The US House of Representatives on July 14 passed the Common Cents Act, a bill that sets formal guidelines for businesses to round cash transactions to the nearest 5 cents as the penny is retired, Payments Dive reported. A Senate companion bill remains in the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, according to the congressional legislative record.
Besides the rounding guidelines, the legislation formally ends production of the 1-cent coin. The US Mint struck its final batch of pennies in November 2025. Sponsors of the bills say penny production wasted about $85 million in taxpayer money each year, as each coin cost 3.69 cents to make.
Retail groups have made the measure a priority. The National Retail Federation counts rounding legislation among its most important policy goals for 2026, citing consumer confusion over retailers’ inability to make exact change and the potential for legal risk, according to Payments Dive. In a July 14 press release, the Retail Industry Leaders Association urged the Senate to pass the companion bill, saying it would “resolve an issue that has been negatively impacting millions of businesses nationwide.”
Grocers voiced similar concerns. The penny’s end “created serious operational challenges and legal uncertainty for retailers of all sizes,” Stephanie Johnson, head of government affairs at the National Grocers Association, said in a July 14 statement.
President Donald Trump directed the Treasury to halt penny production in February 2025. In December, the Treasury issued guidance stating that merchants will need to round cash transactions to the nearest 5 cents as pennies fall out of circulation, while deferring rounding policy and sales tax questions to the states, according to advisory firm Baker Tilly.
States have moved at different speeds in the absence of a federal standard. Washington’s governor signed a law on March 23 permitting symmetrical rounding of cash transactions, according to law firm Fisher Phillips, while at least 10 states and localities have laws that prohibit rounding to the nearest nickel, according to a trade coalition letter to senators cited by tax software firm Avalara.
