Republicans in the US Congress want to block any possibility of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). To do so, they are threatening progress on a bipartisan housing bill.
A group of Republican members of the US House of Representatives wrote a letter on March 6, stating that “there is an urgent need to ban the central bank’s digital currency forever in the United States.”
The letter cites familiar arguments that claim CBDCs threaten financial privacy and give the US Federal Reserve unprecedented powers of financial oversight.
Critics question why Republicans are so eager to ban CBDCs, especially as other global economic powerhouses such as the European Union and China develop their own digital forms of money. However, Republicans are willing to back a bipartisan housing bill to get their way.
Republicans hang CBDC ban on 21st century ROAD on Housing Act
Twenty-eight Republican representatives signed a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson. In it, they noted that the ROAD 21st Century Act to the House, a bill making its way through the Senate Banking Committee, includes provisions that would ban CBDCs.
But lawmakers said it wasn’t strong enough. They noted that the ban would expire in 2030, adding that the new language would not prohibit the Fed from studying CBDC, which was prohibited by a bill introduced last year by Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer.
Representatives demanded that both provisions be removed in the Senate before the bill reaches the House, arguing that “the ban on central bank digital currency should be permanent.” Otherwise, they threatened the success of the housing project:
Otherwise, we will do everything we can to ensure that the 21st Century ROAD Act is dead by the time housing arrives.”
Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna said, “It’s probably going to get worse, so I’m telling everyone now. We would appreciate your air support on this.”
The move puts a monetary and relatively unknown question on a bill that would at least nominally address concerns about housing affordability in the US.
According to a June 2025 survey from fintech company Aevi, 61% of Americans have not even heard of CBDC. Among older respondents, the number is even higher, with more than 70% of people aged 55 to 64 having never heard of one.
Meanwhile, housing costs continue to rise in the US. Data from the Fed and the S&P/Case-Shiller Index of home prices compiled by LongtermTrends show that a typical single-family home is currently worth 7.14 times the median annual household income.
This is the highest ratio of home prices to median household income on record dating back to the late 1940s, higher than the peak of the bubble in 2006.
Part of this is due to a supply squeeze. Housing construction crashed after the 2008 financial crisis. This continued to decline during the second Trump administration.
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The new bipartisan ROAD to the 21st Century Act includes several proposals to make it easier and therefore cheaper to build new housing. This includes immediate environmental reviews and an increase in the Federal Housing Administration’s family loan limits.
“This package includes the Senate’s overwhelmingly unanimously supported ROAD to Housing Act, incorporates the House’s bipartisan housing ideas, and takes a step forward in preventing corporate landlords from forcing families out of home ownership,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a statement.
The presidential administration has already expressed its support for the bill, including the CBDC ban.
Keeping the housing affordability bill above the CBDC, something voters know very little about, may not play well, especially as President Donald Trump and Congress slide in the polls and the economy remains a central concern.
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Does the US need a CBDC to keep the dollar on top?
Republicans claim to be concerned about the privacy implications of the CBDC, and they’re not alone. Regarding the digital euro, the European Central Bank’s planned CBDC, Luxembourg economist Elizabeth Krecke said it was unclear how the trade-off between privacy and functionality could be managed.
“The developers of the digital euro simply claim that Europe’s legal framework offers ‘the strongest privacy protections in the world,'” he said. “The real question is: What ultimately happens to the data? Who has access to it, and ultimately, who controls it?”
Democrats are less skeptical of the CBDC than their Republican counterparts. In particular, according to Krecke, more than 90% of the world’s central banks are exploring the technology.
Criticizing Emmer’s early efforts to ban CBDCs, Congresswoman Maxine Waters said in a statement: “When Republicans are concerned about CBDCs, they talk about retail CBDCs, but because they are so ill-informed, they don’t realize that their bill will stop research into other forms of digitizing the dollar to reduce people’s costs.”
He added that with a functional and operational digital currency, China could offer an attractive alternative to the dollar as a global reserve currency.
Congress is still hammering out the details of the CLARITY Act, the long-awaited crypto framework bill, and now the future of CBDC is balanced with more affordable housing ahead of the midterm elections.
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