TL;DR:
A pair of Republican lawmakers demands that the ban on CBDCs in the United States be permanent, amid the debate over the vote on the bill 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, scheduled for this week in the House of Representatives.
The original version of the bill, introduced by the Senate Banking Committee in March, included a provision that blocked the Federal Reserve System from issuing a digital currency or similar instrument until December 31, 2030. For critics, that time limit is not a real ban: it is a window of opportunity.
The US House of Representatives could deliver a unifying win this week with bipartisan housing affordability legislation. Instead, they currently plan to deliver a go-live date for Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), using housing as the Trojan Horse.
Sadly, it’s being… pic.twitter.com/YTaAlr2XP3
— Warren Davidson
(@WarrenDavidson) May 18, 2026
Representative Mike Flood pushed an amended version in the House that, in his own words, reverses the “covert green light” contained in the original text. Representative Warren Davidson was more direct: he warned that the 2030 expiration date would operate as a pre-launch development period, and accused his colleagues of using the housing legislation as a “Trojan horse” to allow the deployment of a CBDC. If the amended version passes the House this week, it will return to the Senate for consideration before reaching the desk of President Donald Trump.
The debate over central bank digital currencies is not new, but the discussion in Congress puts it back on the agenda. The Human Rights Foundation acknowledged that a CBDC could expand financial inclusion among populations with limited access to the banking system. However, it also noted its potential to undermine individual privacy and lead to new forms of government corruption, as well as excessive state surveillance over citizens’ private lives and finances.
The Chinese Communist Party uses a central bank digital currency (CBDC) to surveil and control its people.
If the U.S. adopted its own CBDC, privacy and economic freedom as we know it would cease to exist.
My Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act BANS our government from ever…
— Tom Emmer (@GOPMajorityWhip) May 18, 2026
Representative Tom Emmer, House Majority Whip, has long been warning about this threat. His Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, approved by the House on July 17, seeks to definitively block any attempt by the Federal Reserve to issue a digital currency. “If the U.S. were to adopt its own CBDC, privacy and economic freedom as we know them would cease to exist,” he stated. Only three countries have officially deployed such a currency: Nigeria, Jamaica, and the Bahamas.
A permanent ban is not merely a political stance. It is the only coherent response to an instrument that, by design, concentrates in the State a power of surveillance and control over the financial transactions of every citizen.
