Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House are moving to make the current temporary restriction on a Federal Reserve-issued central bank digital currency (CBDC) permanent by removing the 2030 sunset clause embedded in the Senate-passed 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. The push aims to close what proponents call a “backdoor green light for a CBDC” and to lock into statute the Trump administration’s January 2025 executive order barring federal agencies from establishing or promoting a digital dollar.
The Senate version of the housing bill, spearheaded by Senators Tim Scott and Elizabeth Warren, originally prohibited the Fed and regional Federal Reserve banks from issuing a CBDC without congressional approval, but only until December 31, 2030. Critics like Representative Warren Davidson argue that the sunset effectively creates a launch window, giving the Fed a four-year runway to prepare infrastructure before the ban expires. “The 2030 sunset works a pre-launch development period,” Davidson said, calling for a full and lasting prohibition.
Representative Mike Flood, chair of the House Housing and Insurance Subcommittee, wrote in a column that the Senate language “effectively authorizes a central bank digital currency through the back door,” and he led the effort to revise the bill to impose an indefinite ban. The amended legislation is expected to go to a House floor vote under suspension of the rules, requiring a two-thirds majority.
This development represents the furthest a CBDC ban has advanced toward becoming law. Two previous standalone anti-CBDC bills — Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act and its later attachment to the Foreign Intelligence Accountability Act — cleared the House but stalled in the Senate. Emmer has continued to lobby senators, framing CBDCs as tools of surveillance akin to China’s digital yuan. “The Chinese Communist Party uses a CBDC to surveil and control its people,” he stated, emphasizing that his legislation “BANS our government from ever creating this Orwellian tool.”
While the Federal Reserve has repeatedly said it has “no plans” to issue a CBDC without explicit congressional authorization, the permanent ban would cement that stance and prevent a future administration from reversing it via executive order. The Atlantic Council reports that 137 countries, representing 98% of global GDP, are exploring CBDCs, though only Nigeria, Jamaica, and the Bahamas have fully launched one. With Senate Majority Leader John Thune previously calling a standalone CBDC ban “dead on arrival,” the housing bill remains the only viable vehicle for the prohibition, making the House’s move a pivotal moment in U.S. digital currency policy.
