Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act
Key claim: The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act (S1124) would prohibit Federal Reserve banks from offering products or services or maintaining accounts for individuals and bar the Fed from issuing, testing, studying, or using a central bank digital currency for monetary policy.
Abstract
(S1124 · 119th Congress) Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act This bill prohibits a Federal Reserve bank from offering products or services directly to an individual, maintaining an account on behalf of an individual, or issuing a central bank digital currency (i.e., a digital dollar). Further, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is prohibited from using a central bank digital currency to implement monetary policy or from testing, studying, creating, or implementing a central bank digital currency, with exceptions as provided by the bill. Latest action (2025-03-25): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Why this matters
A statutory ban on Fed-issued CBDCs and direct-to-individual Fed accounts would foreclose a payment architecture in which the central bank could see individual transaction data, framing CBDC design primarily as a surveillance risk. For individuals, it preserves the status quo of intermediated bank privacy relationships; for the Federal Reserve, it removes both retail account authority and even research/pilot latitude on digital currency.