A group of Republicans is crying foul after the US House passed a sweeping defense spending bill on Wednesday without a proposed ban on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), despite earlier assurances it would be included.
“Conservatives were promised — explicitly — that strong anti-Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) language would be included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). That promise was broken,” GOP Representative Keith Self wrote on X.
The House approved the $900 billion NDAA in a 312–112 vote, sending the annual military funding package to the Senate as lawmakers push to finalize it before year’s end.
Self had submitted an amendment on Tuesday to restore the CBDC ban after it was removed from the bill, but the measure failed to advance and never reached a House floor vote.
He said several Republicans had been “assured that anti-CBDC language would be included,” but were instead presented with a “take-it-or-leave-it bill” that abandoned those commitments. “Without that language,” Self added, “I’m inclined to leave it.”
The more than 3,000-page defense bill is considered must-pass legislation and often serves as a vehicle for non-defense amendments that might otherwise stall or be heavily revised if introduced as standalone legislation.
In July, House Republican leaders struck a deal with party hardliners to include a CBDC ban in the defense spending bill after the group refused to advance three crypto-related bills without assurances the ban would be included. Those bills, which included the stablecoin-regulating GENIUS Act, had been delayed during a record-long nine-hour procedural vote, with former President Donald Trump pressing the GOP to move them quickly.
GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene criticized Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday for breaking the promise to include a CBDC ban. While expressing support for crypto, she said she would “never support giving the government the ability to turn off your ability to have full control of your money and to buy and sell.”
An early House draft of the defense bill shared in August had included a CBDC ban, but the language was removed after multiple amendments and committee markups. The provision would have prohibited the Federal Reserve from testing, studying, developing, or issuing any digital currency or asset, and barred the central bank from offering financial products or services directly to individuals.
In July, the House narrowly passed the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, which would ban CBDCs, in a 219–210 vote, but the measure has since stalled in the Senate.
Self vowed to continue the fight, saying he would “push forward in the next must-pass bill to ensure a CBDC never sees the light of day. Financial freedom isn’t negotiable.”
