House passes CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act with limited bipartisan support

The US House of Representatives on Thursday passed the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Anti-Surveillance State Act in a vote of 216-192. The bill aims to block the Federal Reserve from directly offering a CBDC to individuals and using it to implement monetary policy. 

Three Democrats — Reps. Mary Peltola from Alaska, Marie Perez of Washington and Jared Golden of Maine — voted in favor of the bill. No Republicans voted against the legislation. 

The bill, introduced in September by Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., had earned 165 cosponsors, all of which are Republican, by the time the House voted on Thursday afternoon. 

“My legislation ensures that the United States’ digital currency policy remains in the hands of the American people so that any development of digital money reflects our values of privacy, individual sovereignty, and free market competitiveness,” Emmer said in a statement on X after the vote. 

Emmer first introduced a version of the bill in February 2023. 

“This bill puts a check on unelected bureaucrats and ensures the US digital currency policy upholds our American values of privacy, individual sovereignty, and free-market competitiveness,” Emmer said in September. 

The bill now heads to the Democrat-controlled Senate, which recently passed joint resolution 109 , an effort that, should the president sign off, would overturn the Security and Exchange Commission’s staff accounting bulletin (SAB) 121. 

Emmer’s CBDC bill marks the second piece of crypto-focused legislation to pass in the House this week. Representatives on Wednesday evening passed the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act , known as the FIT21 Act, with two amendments. FIT21 advances to the Senate after 71 House Democrats opted to vote in favor of the bill.

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