Bill Description: Senate Bill 1338 would allow the state to take a small percentage of the money that is sitting idle in its treasury and invest it in physical gold and silver.
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NOTE: Senate Bill 1338 would readdress an idea that has significant history in the Idaho Legislature. In 2024, Senate Bill 1314 passed both the Senate and the House, but was vetoed by the Governor. Prior bills on the subject included House Bill 180 (2023), House Bill 522 (2022), and House Bill 7 (2021).
Also worth noting here, had Senate Bill 1314 not been vetoed, it would have taken effect on July 1, 2024. The spot prices for gold and silver at that time were $2,332 and $29.46, respectively. On the morning of February 26, 2026, these spot prices are at $5,176 (+122%) and $87.01 (+195%), respectively.
Does it violate the spirit or the letter of either the U.S. Constitution or the Idaho Constitution? Examples include restrictions on speech, public assembly, the press, privacy, private property, or firearms. Conversely, does it restore or uphold the protections guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution or the Idaho Constitution?
Senate Bill 1338 would amend Section 67-1210, Idaho Code, which provides for how the state may invest its idle funds. The bill would add a new subsection to this list, saying the state treasurer may invest in “physical gold and silver, owned directly.”
The new subsection would provide two options for storing this gold and silver. The first would be “a depository for precious metals constructed, at a minimum, to currently accepted industry standards for secure storage and located within the geographical boundaries of this state, a state contiguous to this state, or the state of Texas.”
If the state treasurer chose this option, the treasurer would be responsible to “ensure that the gold and silver held in a qualifying depository under this subsection is insured, independently audited, and physically segregated from other assets.”
The second storage option would be “a bank chartered under the Idaho bank act or a credit union organized under the Idaho credit union act when such facility is located within the geographical boundaries of this state and the gold and silver is stored in a class 1 vault.”
The bill would limit “the maximum allowed investment in physical gold and silver” to just 7.5% of idle moneys invested pursuant to this section. This is an unfortunate limitation because it would leave the 92.5% of idle moneys subject to the volatility of the bond market and the wealth-destroying scourge of inflation.
The U.S. Constitution states in Article 1, Section 10, that “no state shall … make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.” The framers of the constitution clearly recognized the importance of physical gold and silver as a store of wealth and the foundation of currency.
Senate Bill 1338 is a positive step toward restoring the constitutional role of gold and silver. Diversifying the state’s investments to include physical gold and silver also helps to protect the state’s resources (although this benefit is limited due to the 7.5% investment cap.)
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