Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act

The bill would amend the Federal Reserve Act to prohibit Federal Reserve banks from offering financial products or services directly to individuals, maintaining individual accounts, or issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) — defined as digital money denominated in the national unit of account that is a direct Fed liability and widely available to the public. The ban would extend to any digital asset "substantially similar" to a CBDC under any other name or label. It would also bar the Board of Governors and the Federal Open Market Committee from using a CBDC to implement monetary policy and would prohibit the Board from testing, studying, developing, or creating one. Indirect issuance through banks or other financial intermediaries would likewise be prohibited.

The bill would carve out an exception for dollar-denominated digital currency that is open, permissionless, and private, and that fully preserves the privacy protections of physical U.S. coins and currency. A sense-of-Congress provision would assert that the Fed currently lacks authority to issue a CBDC and would need explicit congressional authorization to do so.

The Federal Reserve System — including its twelve regional banks, the Board of Governors, and the Federal Open Market Committee — which would be legally barred from developing, testing, or issuing a CBDC. Private financial institutions and payment intermediaries that might otherwise serve as distribution channels for a digital dollar would also be affected. Members of the general public would be foreclosed from receiving CBDC-based accounts or products from the Fed.

If enacted, the Fed would face an explicit statutory barrier to launching or even researching a digital dollar — a step several major central banks are actively pursuing. Any future move toward a U.S. digital currency would require Congress to pass new authorizing legislation, giving lawmakers direct control over whether and how such a system could ever be created.

The bill is largely self-executing: it amends the Federal Reserve Act by inserting explicit prohibitions into Sections 10 and 16. No agency rulemaking or grant process is needed. The Board of Governors and Federal Reserve banks would be bound by the new statutory text upon enactment. The carve-out for open, permissionless, private digital currency would require legal interpretation if challenged, but no implementing process is specified.