Sponsor
Andy Ogles
Representative · R-TN
Representative · R-TN
Official title: To amend the Federal Reserve Act to limit the ability of Federal Reserve banks to issue central bank digital currency.
Introduced February 18, 2025 by Andy Ogles · Last progress February 18, 2025
This bill prevents the Federal Reserve from issuing retail CBDC or holding U.S. digital currency on its balance sheet, preserving bank intermediation and some privacy/operational protections but foregoing public-policy tools that could speed payments, expand inclusion, aid emergency transfers, and risks shifting control and costs to private firms.
Middle-class families and bank customers keep existing bank-based accounts instead of direct Federal Reserve retail accounts, preserving banking intermediation and consumer privacy boundaries.
Taxpayers and financial institutions face reduced risk of novel monetary or operational disruptions because the Fed is barred from holding a U.S.-issued digital currency on its balance sheet.
Low-income and unbanked individuals, as well as middle-class families and taxpayers, lose access to a potential public tool (a retail CBDC) that could enable faster payments, greater financial inclusion, and direct emergency or fiscal transfers because the Fed is barred from issuing CBDC to individuals.
Middle-class families and consumers could face higher costs and greater concentration if development and custody of any U.S. digital currency shift entirely to private intermediaries.
Tech workers, payment providers, and financial firms may see slower innovation in digital payment infrastructure because prohibiting Fed participation reduces public-sector pressure and options to modernize payment rails.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Prohibits the Federal Reserve, Treasury, and related agencies from issuing, offering, or holding a U.S. government–issued retail CBDC or maintaining CBDC accounts for individuals.
Bans the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, and agencies or entities acting for them from issuing, offering, or holding a U.S. government–issued central bank digital currency (CBDC) for or on behalf of individuals or digital-currency intermediaries. It also forbids Federal Reserve banks from keeping U.S. government–minted or -issued digital currencies on their balance sheets or using them to meet certain regulatory requirements. The change narrows the Federal Reserve and specified agencies’ authority over CBDCs and related accounts, preventing direct retail CBDC issuance, account maintenance for individuals, and certain balance-sheet uses of government-issued digital currency.