President Donald Trump said that holdouts on his cryptocurrency legislation agreed to support a procedural vote hours after blocking the three bills over concerns that one of the bills—to ban central bank digital currencies (CBDC)—would not pass the Senate.
He said that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had been part of the discussion via phone and that he would arrange for the vote “as early as possible” on Wednesday.
In a 196–223 vote on Tuesday, the House rejected a rule that would have allowed lawmakers to consider a Department of Defense funding bill and several bills related to cryptocurrency.
Twelve Republicans joined all Democrats in blocking the rule, including Reps. Chip Roy (Texas), Scott Perry (Pa.), Anna Paulina Luna (Fla.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Tim Burchett (Tenn.), Eli Crane (Ariz.), Victoria Spartz (Ind.), Michael Cloud (Texas), Andrew Clyde (Ga.), Andy Harris (Md.), and Keith Self (Texas). Most are members of the freedom caucus, including chair Harris.
These critics tied their vote to concerns about the possibility of the Federal Reserve adopting digital currency, which they said would threaten American rights and pave the way for a financial surveillance state.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) changed his vote to “No,” a parliamentary move to allow the House to reconsider the rule later.
Aside from Pentagon funding for FY 2026, the tanked vote wrapped in three separate cryptocurrency bills. They mark Congress’s first major regulatory push into the speculative digital asset market.
The first of these, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, was negotiated by the Senate and would create a framework for regulating “stablecoins,” cryptocurrency tied to the U.S. dollar or bonds designed to fluctuate minimally in price.
The second, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, would impose regulations on the broader cryptocurrency market beyond stablecoins.
The final bill, the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, would bar the Federal Reserve from issuing a centralized digital currency to the public or issuing a CBDC through banks or intermediaries. The Fed would further be restricted from using a digital currency to implement monetary policy—influencing interest rates, for example—and studying or piloting CBDCs.
Lawmakers who voted “no” wanted these bills wrapped into a single package, due to their concerns that the Senate may reject the prohibition on Fed-issued CBDC.
“The Senate left that out, and then they sent this over to the House, and Speaker Johnson didn’t allow us to do amendments, to allow us to amend the bill to ban CBDC,” Greene said.
