House Republicans are again declaring war on Speaker Mike Johnson after a proposal that would ban the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency was not included in the recent national defense spending bill.
During the summer, Johnson promised conservative members that their proposal would make it into the defense bill now before the House, according to Axios.
Anti-CBDC language from the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act had been rolled into the National Defense Authorization Act when it was first passed by the House, but it is no longer in the version members will vote upon this week.
“Conservatives were promised that language banning a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) would be included in the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA),” Rep. Keith Self, a Republican from Texas, posted on X.
“Unconscionably, it wasn’t included. Leadership needs to fix this bill IMMEDIATELY,” he wrote.
Conservatives were promised that language banning a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) would be included in the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Unconscionably, it wasn’t included.
Leadership needs to fix this bill IMMEDIATELY. pic.twitter.com/r9RxsmTctk
— Rep. Keith Self (@RepKeithSelf) December 8, 2025
Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican from Texas, said he will back Johnson on a procedural vote on the bill, but will not support its passage.
The disaffected Republicans make the procedural vote’s passage dicey, because Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Michael Cloud of Texas, and Greg Steube of Florida have said they will vote against the bill.
Rule votes have been used by Republicans in the past as vehicles to show leadership their anger.
The bill is likely to pass in the end with Democratic support.
Rep. Tom Emmer, a Republican from Minnesota, used his website to explain why the the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act is important.
He said the “insidious technology,” if rolled out, “would undermine our values and destroy Americans’ right to privacy.”
He said a law to block action by the Federal Reserve was necessary “to ensure that the United States’ digital currency policy remains in the hands of the American people so that any future development of digital cash reflects our American values of privacy, individual sovereignty, and free market competitiveness.”
“Unlike decentralized digital assets, a CBDC is a digital form of sovereign currency that is designed, issued, and monitored by the federal government. It is government-controlled programmable money that, if designed without the privacy protections of cash, this could give the federal government the ability to surveil and restrict Americans’ transactions and monitor every aspect of our daily lives,” Emmer explained.
“In other words, every dollar you spend, where you spend it, who you spend it with would all be visible to and tracked by the watchful eyes of Washington,” he said.
“The Chinese Communist Party employs a CBDC that is being used to monitor and restrict citizens’ spending. The data is being used to develop a social credit system that rewards or punishes individuals based on their spending behavior,” he continued.
“In Canada, the former Trudeau Administration demonstrated the power of federal financial surveillance and control when it froze the bank accounts of hundreds of truckers protesting the COVID vaccine mandate in 2022,” Emmer wrote.
“Surely this totalitarian surveillance tool would never take root in the United States; however, that assumption would be wrong. This is not a theoretical risk. It’s a very real and very dangerous precedent.”
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
