U.S. Senate housing bill includes CBDC ban

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Development included a provision temporarily barring the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency in its bipartisan bill to boost housing in the U.S.

The "21st Century ROAD to Housing Act," introduced Monday by Committee Chairman Tim Scott and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren, respectively the top Republican and Democrat on the committee, aims to make it easier to build houses in the U.S.

"Not only is this bill about cutting regulatory red tape, lowering costs, and expanding housing supply while generating no new spending, but it’s about making sure people like the single mom 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 Senate’s unanimously supported ROAD to Housing Act, incorporates bipartisan housing ideas from the House, and takes a good first step to rein in corporate landlords that are squeezing families out of homeownership," Warren said in her own statement.

Neither lawmaker mentioned the CBDC ban, which occupies 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 it has so far not made it all the way through Congress.

"Except as provided in subsection (c), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or a Federal reserve bank may not issue or create a central bank digital currency or any digital asset that is substantially similar to a central bank digital currency directly or indirectly through a financial institution or other intermediary," the section said.

It included a sunset provision for Dec. 31, 2030 and carved out an exception for permissionless, private "dollar-denominated" currencies that "fully preserve the privacy protections" of physical currency.

The White House published a "Statement of Administration Policy" supporting the bill, explicitly supporting the CBDC provision in the two-paragraph statement.

"The Administration highlights the inclusion of presidential priorities … to halt the development of a Central Bank Digital Currency that could be [sic] pose significant threats to personal privacy and liberty," the statement said.