Precious metals storage rules loosened to reduce concentration risk
H.R. 8007 — SILVER Act · Filed by Russ Fulcher (R-ID) · 8 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 19, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends the Commodity Exchange Act to require futures exchanges that handle precious metals to diversify their storage vaults geographically across the U.S. instead of concentrating them near New York City. It mandates that clearing organizations develop transparent criteria for approving new depositories, maintain at least two vaults in each time zone (Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific), and consider geographic diversity, competition, and cost when selecting storage facilities. The stated goal is to reduce systemic risk, lower storage costs for market participants, and increase liquidity by spreading physical metal holdings across the country.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is to lower regulatory barriers to new precious metals depositories by mandating transparent selection criteria and geographic diversity requirements. While framed as systemic-risk reduction, the practical effect is to ease entry for new storage operators and reduce concentration—a deregulatory move that benefits the storage and futures industry.
What the text implies
- The geographic diversity mandate (≥2 depositories per time zone) may favor storage operators in lower-cost regions (Midwest, South) over existing NYC-area vaults, potentially shifting market power and reducing the competitive moat of established players.
- Requiring 'transparent criteria' and 'formal application processes' for depository approval may reduce discretionary gatekeeping by exchanges, lowering barriers to entry for new storage operators and potentially increasing competition but also fragmenting oversight.
- The bill does not specify security or quality standards for new depositories—it defers to 'appropriate security and quality standards' without defining them, creating potential regulatory arbitrage if standards vary by region.
- Spreading precious metals across four time zones increases operational complexity and potential settlement delays, which could reduce liquidity in the short term despite the stated goal of increasing it.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill addresses a legitimate systemic-risk concern (geographic concentration of precious metals storage) and may lower costs for retail investors accessing futures markets. However, the primary beneficiaries are financial market participants and storage operators; the public benefit is indirect and contingent on pass-through of cost savings. The bill does not restrict or protect consumers directly—it restructures a wholesale financial infrastructure.
Who stands to gain
- precious metals storage operators (especially regional/non-NYC vaults)
- futures exchanges and clearing organizations (reduced concentration risk, lower operational costs)
- commodity traders and hedgers (lower storage costs, improved market access)
Named in the bill
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), derivatives clearing organizations, precious metals depositories, futures exchanges, COMEX (implied, as primary NYC-based metals exchange), gold, silver, platinum, palladium markets
Where it stands
8 cosponsors: 6 Republicans, 2 Democrats.
- Mar 19, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 19, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Agriculture · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $630,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 3 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Russ Fulcher, the sponsor, reported $350,070 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Cme Group Inc — $620,000 on 1 filing
- Money Metals Depository LLC — $10,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (4,288 characters) on Apr 8, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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