Gop Hardliners Vexed As Defense Bill Advances Without Cbdc Ban

Conservatives in the Republican Party are frustrated that a promised ban on central bank digital currencies didn’t make it into a must-pass defense bill that’s now on its way to the Senate.

A group of Republicans has called foul after the US House passed a massive defense spending bill on Wednesday that omitted a ban on central bank digital currencies despite promises it would be included.

“Conservatives were promised — explicitly — that strong anti-Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) language would be included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). That promise was broken,” GOP Representative Keith Self wrote to X on Wednesday.

The House voted 312-112 to pass the NDAA on Wednesday, sending the $900 billion annual military funding bill to the Senate in a bid to have it passed before the end of the year.

Self had filed an amendment on Tuesday to include a CBDC ban, which had been removed from the bill, but it failed to advance and did not see a vote on the House floor.

Self said a group of Republicans was “assured that anti-CBDC language would be included. Instead, we have been forced into a take-it-or-leave-it bill that breaks that promise. Without that language, I’m inclined to leave it.”

The more than 3,000-page bill is considered must-pass legislation and typically sees non-defense-related amendments that could otherwise be stalled or heavily revised if passed as standalone bills.

In July, House Republican leaders cut a deal with a group of party hardliners to put a CBDC ban in the defense spending bill after the group refused to move forward with three crypto bills unless a CBDC ban was guaranteed.

The bills had been held up in a record-long nine-hour procedural vote and included the stablecoin-regulating GENIUS Act, which President Donald Trump had pressured the GOP to quickly pass.

Related: Does GENIUS turn stablecoin issuers into stealth buyers of US debt?

Source: CoinTelegraph