By Sander Lutz
2 min read
President Donald Trump abruptly canceled a signing ceremony Wednesday for a sweeping, bipartisan housing bill—one that contains a provision banning the U.S. government from issuing a central bank digital currency until 2031.
The bill, dubbed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, is the rare piece of federal legislation with overwhelming support from both political parties. It cuts restrictions on building new homes across the United States, and would also prohibit Wall Street heavyweights from buying up the nation’s housing supply.
The Senate passed the legislation in an 85-5 vote on Monday, and the House quickly followed suit with a 358-32 vote.
Crypto and privacy advocates also slipped language into the bill earlier this year temporarily barring the Federal Reserve from creating a central bank digital currency, or CBDC—a digital asset backed by the U.S. government. The prohibition on so-called digital dollars would last until the end of 2030.
While other major global players including the European Union have pressed ahead with plans to issue a CBDC, conservatives in the United States have railed against the still-theoretical creation of an American version, which they argue could allow the government to access data about citizens’ private transactions.
The ban was expected to go into effect today, with President Trump set to sign the housing bill into law during a high-profile ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.
But the president then opted, just hours before the event, to cancel it—claiming the legislation was “of minor importance,” and pledging not to sign it into law until Congress passes another bill, the SAVE America Act. That controversial legislation, favored by Trump for months, would significantly curtail voting rights in the United States. Republican leadership has repeatedly emphasized that the bill stands little to no chance of passage.
If Trump ultimately vetoes the housing bill, Congress would need to approve it again by a veto-proof supermajority of two-thirds in both chambers. The bill garnered sufficient support to pass that threshold on the first go-around, but it remains unclear whether those dynamics could shift following Trump’s move.
The president’s decision to cancel today’s signing ceremony appears to have been last-minute. A stage for the event was already erected at the Capitol, and just minutes before Trump’s announcement, his aides were bragging about the housing bill’s positive impact online.
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