House Committee Advances Bill for Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

In brief

The House Financial Services Committee reported the American Reserve Modernization Act favorably by 28 votes to 21.

The version that advanced drops the gold and Federal Reserve mechanisms floated for buying more Bitcoin.

Proof-of-reserve reporting falls from quarterly to annual.

A House committee has advanced a bill that would write President Donald Trump's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve into law, reporting the American Reserve Modernization Act, H.R. 8957, favorably on Wednesday by 28 votes to 21.

All 28 votes to report the bill came from Republicans and all 21 against from Democrats. An amendment from ranking member Maxine Waters (D-CA) failed on the same 21-28 line.

The bill would give the Treasury 180 days to stand up a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a separate Digital Asset Stockpile, and requires every federal agency to account for its holdings within 60 days. Committee chairman French Hill (R-AR) called it "a common-sense measure that brings digital assets held across federal agencies under Treasury custody and consistent oversight." Once deposited, no Bitcoin could be "sold, swapped, auctioned, encumbered, or otherwise disposed of for any purpose" for 20 years.

A narrower text

The text that advanced is narrower than the one Rep. Nick Begich (R-AK) introduced in May, after the committee adopted a substitute from Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) by voice vote.

Gone are the most ambitious funding ideas. The original directed a study of acquiring Bitcoin using "discretionary surplus remittances from Federal Reserve Banks or revaluation of gold certificates held by the Federal Reserve Banks," along with tariff revenue and gifts. Steil's version cuts all of it, leaving only asset swaps, forfeitures and cooperative programs with states. The bill's long title, which had promised to "offset costs utilizing certain resources of the Federal Reserve System," was rewritten to drop the phrase.

Proof-of-reserve reports drop from quarterly to annual, and an explicit requirement to post them on the Treasury's website disappears. Forked and airdropped assets would have to be held for one year rather than five. Proceeds from selling stockpile assets, which the original earmarked for buying more Bitcoin or cutting the debt, would cover management costs first.

One provision widened. "Qualifying Bitcoin" is no longer limited to coins seized in forfeiture but covers all Bitcoin the federal government owns.

The bill still authorizes no purchases, ordering Treasury and Commerce to study within 180 days whether buying more could be done without cost to taxpayers. Nothing in that section permits "any borrowing or other financing, including the pledging, encumbering, or use of any digital asset or other asset of the United States as collateral." Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has separately ruled out agency purchases.

Waters' amendment aimed to bar the president, vice president, members of Congress and their spouses, children and children-in-law from holding a controlling stake in any digital asset, serving as an officer or owner of an issuer, or taking "direct or indirect compensation, including fees, for the sale, marketing, or mining" of one.