U.S. Senate passes housing bill! Surprise attached clause: banning the Federal Reserve from issuing CBDCs before 2030

The U.S. Senate has passed the “21st Century Housing Road Act,” aiming to address housing shortages, yet it also includes a provision that bans the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency by the end of 2030.

Bipartisan Housing Bill Clears with a Large Margin

On June 22, the U.S. Senate passed the “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act” by an overwhelming vote of 85 to 5. The bill primarily focuses on tackling the United States’ housing supply shortage and rising home prices. It includes measures such as easing certain building and financing restrictions, increasing the supply of affordable housing, and limiting large institutional investors from bulk purchasing single-family homes.

Because the bill received broad support from both the Democratic and Republican parties, it is considered one of the largest housing reform bills in the United States in recent years. However, within the hundreds of pages of the legislation, outsiders unexpectedly found a cryptocurrency provision that is not closely related to housing issues. The provision clearly prohibits the Federal Reserve (U.S. central bank) from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) by the end of 2030—also known colloquially as the “digital dollar.” Since the relevant content was included in the housing bill for review rather than being handled through a separate bill, it quickly drew attention from both the market and the crypto industry.

Image source: Senate Banking Committee—Part of the housing bill banning the Federal Reserve from creating a CBDC

CBDC Ban Extends Through 2030

Under the text of the bill, the Federal Reserve is prohibited from directly issuing a CBDC to the public, and it is also prohibited from using commercial banks or other financial institutions as intermediaries to promote a digital dollar plan. In other words, whether it is a retail CBDC or an indirectly issued model through the financial system, both will be restricted.

The bill states that the related ban will remain in effect until December 31, 2030, which means that for roughly the next four and a half years, the Federal Reserve will be unable to advance an official CBDC issuance plan. To push forward a digital dollar before the ban expires, Congress must pass additional amendments.

In recent years, the United States’ stance on CBDC has gradually become more conservative. Some Republican lawmakers believe that CBDC could expand the government’s ability to monitor financial transactions, further affecting individuals’ privacy and financial freedom. The cryptocurrency industry has also repeatedly voiced opposition, worrying that a government-led digital currency would squeeze out room for the development of stablecoins and decentralized finance.

Trump Administration’s Opposition to the Digital Dollar Gradually Takes Shape

The inclusion of this CBDC ban in a bipartisan housing bill also reflects a shift in the political atmosphere in Washington. Since Trump returned to the White House, the government has repeatedly publicly opposed CBDC and has tended to support private-sector-issued, dollar-backed stablecoins as the primary direction for digital financial innovation.

In fact, in recent years the U.S. government and Congress have pushed stablecoin regulation at a noticeably faster pace than CBDC-related discussions. Including bills such as the “GENIUS Act,” stablecoin legislation has continued to make progress, while the digital dollar plan has lacked substantive advancement. The related provision in this housing bill is also seen as an important step for Congress to further institutionalize an anti-CBDC stance.

It is worth noting that support for the bill’s camp is not limited to Republicans. The Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Tim Scott, and prominent Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren both support moving the overall bill forward. Although the two sides often disagree on crypto regulation issues, they have still reached cooperation during the legislative process of the housing reform bill.

House Deliberation Will Determine the Future of the Digital Dollar

The bill has now been submitted to the House for consideration. Since housing reform itself has gained strong bipartisan support, and because the House and Senate have already gone through multiple rounds of negotiations earlier, market expectations generally hold that the likelihood of the bill ultimately passing is quite high.

If the House approves it and sends it to the President for signature, the Federal Reserve’s issuance of a CBDC would be delayed to at least after 2031. This also means that in the coming years, the focus of U.S. digital currency policy may continue to center on stablecoin regulation and innovation in the private sector, rather than on a CBDC system led by the Federal Reserve.

For the crypto industry, the importance of this provision even goes beyond the housing bill itself. Over the past few years, U.S. regulators have continued studying the feasibility of a digital dollar but have never entered a stage of formal implementation. Now, with Congress directly restricting the timeline for CBDC development through legislation, the U.S. position in the global digital currency race becomes even clearer—contrasting sharply with active official digital currency initiatives such as the digital euro and China’s digital yuan.