Congress blocks Fed from issuing digital currency, entrenches private banks
H.R. 1919 — Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act · Filed by Tom Emmer (R-MN) · 135 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 6, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
This bill prohibits the Federal Reserve from offering financial products or services directly to individuals, from maintaining individual accounts, and from issuing or testing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)—either directly or indirectly through intermediaries. It also declares that the Fed lacks authority to create a CBDC unless Congress explicitly grants it. The bill benefits citizens concerned about financial surveillance and Fed overreach by blocking a potential pathway to direct government control of personal money.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a series of prohibitions on Federal Reserve authority—blocking direct consumer banking, account-holding, and CBDC issuance. It is fundamentally a constraint on government power, not a market intervention or subsidy.
What the text implies
- By blocking Fed-issued CBDCs, the bill may entrench private banking intermediaries as the sole providers of digital payment infrastructure, potentially protecting their market position and fee structures from disruption by a public alternative.
- The prohibition on 'substantially similar' digital assets under 'any other name or label' is broad enough to potentially capture stablecoins or other private digital currencies if regulators interpret them as CBDC-adjacent, creating regulatory uncertainty.
- The exception for 'open, permissionless, and private' dollar-denominated digital assets may inadvertently legitimize or protect certain cryptocurrency projects from Fed oversight, depending on how 'privacy protections' are defined.
- Blocking Fed account-holding for individuals removes a potential tool for financial inclusion (direct access to central bank services for the unbanked) and reinforces dependence on private banks as intermediaries.
- The 'Sense of Congress' provision (Section 5) is non-binding but signals legislative intent to constrain Fed authority; future Fed actions on digital currency may face legal challenge or appropriations riders based on this language.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill restricts government power (the Federal Reserve) from accessing individual financial data and creating a surveillance-capable digital currency, protecting citizens' financial privacy and limiting central bank scope. However, it forecloses a potential public-interest use case (financial inclusion for the unbanked) and may entrench private banking's role as the sole intermediary for digital payments.
Who stands to gain
- commercial banks and financial institutions (protected from Fed competition in retail banking and di
- insurance companies and asset managers (mapped stocks suggest regulatory-exposure firms may benefit
Named in the bill
Federal Reserve System, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, Federal Open Market Committee, Federal Reserve Act, central bank digital currency (CBDC), AIG, FBK, FMAO, PFG, PRU
Where it stands
135 cosponsors: 134 Republicans, 1 Independents.
- Mar 6, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 6, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Financial Services · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services”
- Apr 2, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Apr 2, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 27 - 22”
- Jul 17, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 219 - 210 (Roll no. 201).”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
4 lobbying clients named this bill on 6 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $7,760,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 32 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 72% of bills with at least one filing.
Tom Emmer, the sponsor, reported $2,391,750 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Bankers Association — $5,210,000 on 2 filings
- Consumer Bankers Association — $2,000,000 on 2 filings
- Digital Currency Group — $410,000 on 1 filing
- Heritage Action for America — $140,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,043 characters) on Jul 10, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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