Sponsors (8)
The bill protects private banks, consumer privacy, and requires Congressional approval before a Fed retail CBDC — preserving the current banking structure — while forgoing potential gains in financial inclusion, faster/lower-cost payment rails, and a new crisis-response tool that a Fed-backed digital currency might have provided.
Banks and other financial institutions keep sole responsibility for consumer deposits and accounts, preventing the Federal Reserve from competing with or redirecting retail deposits to a Fed-run system.
Consumers (including middle-class and low-income households) retain existing cashlike privacy protections because the Fed is blocked from creating a retail CBDC or centrally collecting individual transaction data.
Any authority to create a U.S. CBDC must come from Congress, ensuring elected representatives debate and provide oversight before a new form of money or Fed retail accounts are authorized.
Consumers (especially unbanked and low-income individuals) lose the option of a Fed-run digital account or wallet that might expand access to basic financial services and inclusion.
All taxpayers and households may forgo potential faster, lower-cost payment rails and a mechanism for direct, rapid delivery of emergency or social payments because Fed-issued retail payments are blocked.
Policymakers and the public could lose a potential monetary-policy and crisis-response tool, constraining options the Fed might use in future financial emergencies.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Prohibits the Federal Reserve from creating, testing, issuing, or using a retail central bank digital currency, and bars Reserve Banks from offering accounts or CBDC services to individuals.
Introduced March 25, 2025 by Rafael Edward Cruz · Last progress March 25, 2025
Prohibits the Federal Reserve System from creating, testing, issuing, or implementing any central bank digital currency (CBDC) or any substantially similar digital asset, and bars Federal Reserve Banks from offering accounts or products directly or indirectly to individual consumers. The bill also forbids the Board of Governors and the Federal Open Market Committee from using a CBDC to carry out monetary policy. Defines CBDC as digital money denominated in U.S. dollars that is a direct liability of the Federal Reserve and widely available to the public, while carving out an exception for dollar-denominated private digital money that is open, permissionless, and preserves the privacy protections of cash. It includes a non-binding statement that the Federal Reserve lacks authority to issue a CBDC absent explicit congressional authorization under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.