Both chambers of Congress have passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which prohibits the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency until December 31, 2030. The House cleared the bill 358-32 on Tuesday, one day after the Senate’s 85-5 vote, sending it to President Trump for signature.
Both chambers of Congress have passed legislation barring the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency through 2030, with the bill heading to President Trump for signature after the House cleared it Tuesday.
The House passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act with a large bipartisan majority on Tuesday, one day after the Senate’s 85-5 passage Monday. The bill’s CBDC prohibition bars the Federal Reserve or any Federal Reserve bank from issuing, creating, or facilitating a central bank digital currency, effective through December 31, 2030. “Today, Congress delivered a major win for families working toward the American Dream,” Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott said in a statement Tuesday.
Housing Act Vehicle
The CBDC ban traveled inside a broader housing affordability package. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act targets corporate landlord concentration in single-family housing, streamlines development permitting, and updates HUD programs. House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill co-led the bill alongside Ranking Member Maxine Waters, Senate Banking Chairman Scott, and Senate Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren. The House passed its amended version 396-13 in May before the Senate incorporated the changes into a final reconciled text. The deal to unify the two chambers’ versions landed last week, ending months of cross-chamber delays. Hill called the process proof that “Washington still works.”
The CBDC language was added to the housing bill to secure House Republican support. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who has led anti-CBDC legislation in the House for years, has consistently argued that a Fed-issued digital currency would undermine Americans’ financial privacy and hand government undue control over transactions. The Senate’s 85-5 margin showed the ban also commanded substantial Democratic backing. That broad coalition is now both chambers on record: the first statutory prohibition of a Fed-issued retail digital dollar in US history.
Stablecoin Runway
The prohibition settles one dimension of the US digital-payments landscape for the next four years. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the signing of the GENIUS Act marked “a seminal moment for digital assets and dollar supremacy” when Trump signed it into law in 2025. Read together, the stablecoin authorization and the CBDC ban define Washington’s digital-dollar posture: private dollar tokens, regulated under the GENIUS Act, are the channel the administration is backing. The Fed is off the field.
Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT together hold roughly 84% of a stablecoin market above $308 billion in capitalization, according to CoinGecko data. Banks, payment networks, and fintechs integrating stablecoin settlement rails face no Fed-issued digital-dollar entrant through the end of 2030. For institutional payments desks assessing vendor or settlement-rail decisions over a multi-year horizon, the statutory ban provides a planning anchor on the competitive landscape. The Clarity Act, pressing toward a Senate floor vote ahead of the August recess, addresses broader digital-asset market structure in a parallel track.
2030 Sunset
The ban expires at year-end 2030 rather than running permanently. Some House Republicans in the Freedom Caucus pushed for a permanent prohibition; the four-year sunset was the compromise that secured final bicameral agreement. A future Congress and administration could revisit the question after 2030, though the 85-5 Senate margin represents a broad bipartisan coalition that would require significant political realignment to reverse.
The bill does not restrict commercial banks or private entities from building their own digital-dollar products. It applies only to the Federal Reserve and Federal Reserve banks. Trump is expected to sign the legislation; Speaker Mike Johnson and the White House backed the housing bill throughout the bicameral negotiation.
