Rep. Keith Self Accuses House Leaders of Breaking Promise to Include Anti-CBDC Language in NDAA

House leadership faces accusations of reneging on a critical digital currency commitment.

Congressman Keith Self claims a promised prohibition on Central Bank Digital Currencies was stripped from the National Defense Authorization Act—a move that could reshape the financial battlefield.

The Broken Deal

Lawmakers allegedly agreed to block the Federal Reserve from launching a digital dollar without explicit congressional approval. That language has now vanished from the final NDAA text. The omission bypasses a key legislative check on monetary policy.

Why It Matters for Crypto

This isn't just bureaucratic drama. A U.S. CBDC represents an existential threat to decentralized finance—state-controlled programmable money that could freeze transactions, enforce expiration dates, or exclude entire sectors. Its absence from the defense bill is a win for Fed flexibility and a potential loss for financial privacy advocates.

The finance sector, always eager for a new centrally-planned product to mismanage, might be quietly cheering.

The Political Fallout

The accusation cuts to the core of legislative trust. If promises on digital currency safeguards can't survive backroom negotiations, what can? It signals that the fight over America's monetary future will be messy, opaque, and fiercely contested.

Watch this space. The battle over who controls the future of money just got a lot more political.

Congress drops CBDC ban

The NDAA is a 3,086-page package that authorizes next year’s defense budget. It has already run into backlash from hard-liners over Ukraine funding and other omissions. Meanwhile, the absence of a CBDC prohibition has become an unexpected flashpoint in the party’s internal debate over digital money and surveillance.

Earlier, Self, in an interview, stated that leadership had indicated Rep. Tom Emmer’s anti-CBDC measure would be part of the final bill. After reviewing the text, he confirmed it wasn’t there. Other Republicans have echoed the criticism. 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said she supports crypto but “will not support any system that lets the government cut off Americans from their own money.” In an X post, she mentioned that back in July, she voted NO on the GENIUS Act because it contained a back door to a CBDC. Greene added that at that time, Johnson promised conservatives that he would put Tom Emmer’s bill, which closed the loophole.

Rep. Warren Davidson warned that “CBDC inserts the government between you and your money.” He added that President Trump’s executive order banning federal agencies from pursuing a CBDC “is great, but we need and were promised a law.”

In a fresh post, Davidson stated that Congress just reneged on the promise to ban Central Bank Digital Currency. In the meantime, the central banks are building it. He emphasised the need to ban CBDC.

The TRUMP administration has moved quickly to reverse the Biden-era Fed’s limited CBDC research. However, one of Trump’s first crypto-related executive orders in January banned federal agencies from developing or promoting a CBDC. It cited risks to privacy, sovereignty, and financial stability.

This all comes in when the global crypto market is in the middle of a recovery run after witnessing high sell-offs. The cumulative crypto market cap dipped by almost 2% in the last 24 hours to stand at $3.16 trillion. Bitcoin price dropped by 12% in the last 30 days. BTC is trading at an average price of $93,682 at the press time.

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