US House and Senate Leaders Release Updated Housing Bill Text with CBDC Ban

In brief

The leaders of the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees have released updated text for the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which would bar the Fed from issuing a CBDC through December 31, 2030.

The compromise adds a three-year sunset for a disaster-recovery block grant program and adopts House priorities, including limits on institutional homebuyers and nine community banking bills.

The text now returns to the Senate floor, though some House conservatives still want the CBDC ban made permanent.

The leaders of the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees released updated text Tuesday for sweeping housing legislation that also carries a temporary ban on a U.S. central bank digital currency.

The package, H.R. 6644, aims to boost supply, lower costs, and stop institutional investors from crowding families out of the single-family market. Tucked into the bill is language stating that the Fed "may not issue or create a central bank digital currency" or any substantially similar asset through December 31, 2030—with a carveout for open, permissionless private dollar assets such as stablecoins that preserve “the privacy protections of United States coins and physical currency.”

Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-SC), Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-AR), and Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA) said the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act reflects years of bipartisan, bicameral work and folds in priorities from the Senate, House, and White House. Scott said it was time to "deliver real relief for the American people," while Warren called it the biggest housing bill in more than 30 years.

To seal the deal after months of negotiation, the Senate accepted a three-year sunset for a disaster-recovery block grant program and adopted House measures, including nine community banking bills and language limiting institutional homebuyers, Hill said. "I look forward to President Trump signing it into law," he added. Waters said the text includes more than 50 housing and banking provisions Democrats fought to secure.

The anti-CBDC provision was added at the urging of House Republicans, and the Trump White House has backed it, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently reiterating that a digital dollar is off the table.

CBDCs—government-issued digital cash equivalents—have become a partisan flashpoint, with critics warning they could enable financial surveillance. Some House conservatives, including Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), want a permanent ban, arguing that "CBDCs are bad for everyone."