This has more holes than swiss cheese and is not what I hoped for when I read the headline. It doesn’t go far enough.  Just saying the FED can’t issue it directly to the public is practically meaningless. That means the FED can still issue one but only deal directly with the commercial banks, which they do now anyway.(it is probably the commercial banks who sponsored this bill) Then the commercial banks would set up the accounts for customers the way they do currently. This does nothing to stop the potential abuses of control that would inevitably follow.  If Congress really wants to do something meaningful in this area all they have to do is pass legislation that physical currency will NEVER be removed from the system. I don’t think they will because this smells like a stalking horse to look like they are protecting the people when they are just protecting the commercial banks.    https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/us-legislators-introduce-bill-would-prohibit-creation-american-cbdc