The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Development Committee included a provision temporarily banning the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency in its bipartisan bill aimed at boosting U.S. housing.
The “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act,” introduced Monday by Committee Chairman Tim Scott and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren, the committee’s ranking Republicans and Democrats, respectively, aims to make it easier to build homes in the United States.
“Not only does this bill aim to cut red tape, reduce costs, and increase the supply of housing without generating new spending, but it also aims to ensure that people like the single mother who raised me in North Charleston, South Carolina, have even greater access to economic opportunity and the American dream of homeownership,” Scott said in a statement.
“The package includes the vast majority of the ROAD to Housing Act, unanimously supported by the Senate, incorporates the House’s bipartisan housing ideas, and is a positive first step to reining in business owners who are pricing families out of homeownership,” Warren said in her own statement.
Neither lawmaker mentioned the ban on CBDCs, which takes up just two pages in the 303-page bill. Lawmakers have included the ban in previous bills and the House of Representatives passed it as a standalone bill last year, but so far it has not passed Congress.
“Except as provided in paragraph (c), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve or a Federal Reserve Bank may not issue or create a central bank digital currency or any digital asset substantially similar to a central bank digital currency, directly or indirectly through a financial institution or other intermediary,” the section states.
It included a sunset provision for December 31, 2030, and provided an exception for unauthorized “dollar-denominated” private currencies that “fully preserve the privacy protections” of physical currency.
The White House issued an “Administrative Policy Statement” supporting the bill, explicitly supporting the CBDC provision in the two-paragraph statement.
“The administration emphasizes the inclusion of presidential priorities…to stop the development of a central bank digital currency that could be [sic] pose significant threats to privacy and personal freedom,” the statement said.
