House Panel Backs Slimmed U.S. Bitcoin Reserve Bill in 28–21 Party-Line Vote

Washington just moved a step closer to codifying a federal Bitcoin trove—but with handcuffs on. The House Financial Services Committee voted 28–21 to report the American Reserve Modernization Act (H.R. 8957), a party-line split that advances President Donald Trump’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve from executive order to statute while deliberately shrinking how it might grow and how often it must disclose.

What passed is a constraints-first framework. Treasury gets 180 days to stand up two structures: a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a distinct Digital Asset Stockpile. Every federal agency would have 60 days to inventory and report any digital assets it already holds. Once Bitcoin is deposited, it cannot be sold, swapped, auctioned, encumbered, or otherwise disposed of for 20 years. The committee chair framed it as a common-sense consolidation of federal digital assets under Treasury custody and uniform oversight.

The text that advanced is narrower than the May draft from Rep. Nick Begich (R-AK). A substitute from Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), adopted by voice vote, cuts the most ambitious funding ideas. Gone are studies of using Federal Reserve Bank surplus remittances, revaluing gold certificates on the Fed’s balance sheet, tariff revenue, and gifts to acquire more Bitcoin. What remains are modest pathways: asset swaps, forfeitures, and cooperative programs with states. Even the bill’s long title was revised to remove any reference to offsetting costs with Federal Reserve System resources.

Transparency also thins. Proof-of-reserve reporting shifts from quarterly to annual, and the explicit requirement to publish those reports on Treasury’s website disappears. Forked and airdropped assets, originally subject to a five-year hold, would be held for one year. Proceeds from selling non-Bitcoin stockpile assets would first cover management costs—whereas the prior draft prioritized buying more Bitcoin or paying down federal debt.

One definition widens meaningfully: “qualifying Bitcoin” now encompasses all Bitcoin owned by the federal government, not just coins obtained through forfeiture. Yet the bill still authorizes no new purchases. Instead, Treasury and Commerce must study within 180 days whether additional acquisitions could occur without any cost to taxpayers, while explicitly prohibiting borrowing, pledging, or using any U.S. assets—digital or otherwise—as collateral. Separately, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has already ruled out agency purchases.

The vote split underscores the politics. All 28 Republicans supported advancing the bill; all 21 Democrats opposed. An amendment from ranking member Maxine Waters (D-CA) failed on the same 21–28 line. Her proposal would have barred the president, vice president, members of Congress, and their spouses, children, and children-in-law from holding a controlling stake in any digital asset, serving as an officer or owner of an issuer, or receiving direct or indirect compensation for selling, marketing, or mining a digital asset.

My read: lawmakers are choosing credible custody over aggressive accumulation. By stripping out Fed and gold-certificate mechanics, the committee reduces the risk of monetary policy entanglement and signals no intent to lever the sovereign balance sheet into Bitcoin. That restraint might help pass muster with deficit hawks and central bank traditionalists, but it also blunts the narrative that the U.S. will be a structural buyer. Annual proof-of-reserve disclosures, coupled with the removal of mandatory web posting, save administrative friction yet may weaken market trust precisely where cryptographic attestations are strongest. The 20-year lockup pushes a scarcity signal, which some traders might view as bullish, but without authorized purchases the net effect is symbolic—a governance wrapper for assets the government already owns.

On governance, the broadened “qualifying Bitcoin” language smartly avoids edge cases around seized coins and positions the reserve as the canonical custodian for any government-owned BTC. Shortening the hold on forks and airdrops from five years to one gives Treasury discretion to rationalize dust and operational spinoffs. Prioritizing management costs before reinvestment or debt reduction is operationally conservative, though it may draw criticism from those who prefer every realized dollar compound into BTC.

For markets, this is not a near-term catalyst. It’s rulemaking around custody, accounting, and optics. Bitcoin hovered near $76,433 at publication, down 1.78% over 24 hours, with a $76,683 high, $75,161 low, and roughly $1.1 billion in volume. Prediction odds from Myriad suggested a 77% chance BTC trades between $76,000 and $78,000 today and a 59% chance it holds above $76,000 this week—consistent with a policy headline that alters guardrails rather than flows.

The bill now heads to the full House; no companion has cleared the Senate. The administration already established the reserve by executive order in March 2025, so statutory backing mainly hardens rules, timelines, and prohibitions. If this version becomes law, the U.S. would formalize a sovereign Bitcoin reserve with strict custody, slower transparency, and no acquisition engines—an architecture built for durability, not daring.