The US Senate has passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act by an 85-5 vote, and the bill carries a provision that would block the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency for the next four years. If the House approves the measure and President Donald Trump signs it, the Fed would be barred from issuing a digital dollar until the end of 2030.
CBDC restriction inserted into housing legislation
The housing affordability bill was not originally centered on digital currency policy. According to the source material, Republican lawmakers pushed to add the prohibition during deliberations, and the clause moved forward as part of the broader bill. The language states that the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the regional Federal Reserve banks may not issue or create a CBDC, either directly or through intermediaries such as financial institutions, nor any digital asset that is substantially equivalent to a CBDC.
The House is expected to take up the bill under an accelerated voting process on Tuesday or Wednesday. If that process is completed, the US path toward a digital dollar would face a formal legislative halt. The deadline is explicit.
Europe and China remain on separate tracks
While the US Senate is advancing a ban, other major economies are still moving ahead with state-backed digital currency plans. The European Central Bank is planning a digital euro pilot in 2027, with full rollout targeted for 2029. China’s central bank launched the digital yuan, or e-CNY, earlier and has already expanded large-scale trials across multiple cities.
In structure, a CBDC is a digital form of sovereign money issued by a central bank. That sets it apart from stablecoins, which are generally issued by private companies and tied to reserve assets rather than constituting legal tender in digital form.
Opposition from the Fed chair and the White House
The report notes that former Fed Chair Jerome Powell had said banks would handle the operational side even if a digital dollar were introduced. Current Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, during his nomination hearing, took a sharper line and called a CBDC a “bad policy choice.”
The White House had already laid out a similar position. In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order prohibiting executive agencies from taking steps to advance a CBDC, arguing that a digital dollar would threaten financial stability, individual privacy, and US sovereignty. The Senate vote now pushes that stance beyond executive action and into the legislative process.