U.S. Senate Advances Housing Package With Fed CBDC Ban Through 2030

The U.S. Senate on Monday approved a broad bipartisan housing package that would bar the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) through Dec. 31, 2030, sending the measure a step closer to President Trump. The bill, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (H.R. 6644), is led by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). It cleared the chamber Monday evening on an 855 vote. A House floor vote was expected as soon as Tuesday, with final passage potentially sending the package to the president's desk. Under the CBDC provision, the Fed would be prohibited from issuing a "digital dollar" either directly or through intermediaries. The text also blocks the issuance of any digital asset broadly equivalent to a CBDC and closes what critics described as an indirect pathway that could allow a retail CBDC to be distributed through commercial banks or payment firms. The restriction is bundled with 44 other housing-supply provisions in H.R. 6644. It includes an exception for dollar-denominated digital currencies that operate on open, permissionless networks with cash-like privacy protections, a carve-out that would shield existing private-sector stablecoins. The housing package became the vehicle for the CBDC language after a standalone ban stalled in the Senate. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) passed his AntiCBDC Surveillance State Act in the House in July 2025 by a 219-210 vote, then attached a second version to the Foreign Intelligence Accountability Act in April. Neither measure advanced through the Senate on its own. "CBDCs stand against everything we love in this country: privacy, freedom, and free market competition. We must never allow this weaponized surveillance tool to be adopted here," Emmer said in an April statement. Crypto policy groups welcomed the CBDC language after it was folded into the housing bill in March. The Digital Chamber voiced support on X, with CEO Cody Carbone cited in the post. Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger also backed the inclusion in a statement posted to X. The Senate vote follows a June 17 report by The Defiant that negotiators had reached a bicameral agreement to embed the CBDC ban in the housing package. It also comes against the backdrop of the GENIUS Act (S. 394), which created a federal licensing framework for payment stablecoins and was signed into law by President Trump in July 2025. The result is a dual track: private-sector digital dollars can operate under federal oversight, while a government-issued alternative would be off-limits through 2030. In contrast, Europe is moving in the opposite direction. The European Parliament earlier this year voted to advance the digital euro framework, with EU lawmakers weighing enabling legislation, setting the U.S. and EU on diverging paths for government-issued digital currency. The House is expected to vote on H.R. 6644 this week. If it passes, the bill will head to President Trump for signature.