House Committee Hands Strategic $BTC Reserve a 20-Year Time-Out 🟧

The U.S. House Financial Services Committee voted 28-21 on Wednesday to report favorably H.R. 8957, the American Reserve Modernization Act of 2026, advancing legislation that would place President Donald Trump's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve into federal statute. The vote fell along party lines, with all 28 votes in favor coming from Republicans and all 21 opposed coming from Democrats. An amendment from ranking member Maxine Waters (D-CA) failed on the same 21-28 split. The markup began at 10:00 a.m. ET in Room 2128 of the Rayburn House Office Building as part of a nine-bill agenda.

H.R. 8957 was introduced on May 21 by Rep. Nicholas Begich (R-AK) with Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) as co-lead and has 23 cosponsors. It was heard by the Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee on July 17 as part of a hearing on the CLARITY Act. The bill directs the Secretary of the Treasury to stand up a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve within 180 days of enactment and a separate Digital Asset Stockpile for non-Bitcoin digital assets, and requires federal agencies to deliver a complete accounting of their holdings within 60 days.

Before passage, the committee adopted a substitute amendment from Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) by voice vote in recorded vote FC-317, narrowing the original measure. The amended text drops language directing a study of acquiring Bitcoin using "discretionary surplus remittances from Federal Reserve Banks or revaluation of gold certificates held by the Federal Reserve Banks," along with tariff revenue and gifts, leaving only asset swaps, forfeitures and cooperative programs with states. The bill's long title was rewritten to remove the phrase "offset costs utilizing certain resources of the Federal Reserve System." Proof-of-reserve reporting drops from quarterly to annual, and a requirement to publish those reports on the Treasury's website was eliminated. Forked and airdropped assets would be held for one year rather than five. Proceeds from selling stockpile assets, which the original earmarked for additional Bitcoin purchases or debt reduction, would first cover management costs.

The amended language expands "qualifying Bitcoin" beyond coins seized in forfeiture to cover all Bitcoin owned by the federal government but authorizes no new purchases, ordering Treasury and Commerce to study within 180 days whether buying more could be done without cost to taxpayers. That section explicitly prohibits "any borrowing or other financing, including the pledging, encumbering, or use of any digital asset or other asset of the United States as collateral." U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has separately ruled out agency purchases, telling Fox Business, "We're not going to be buying that," while endorsing the strategic reserve concept.

Bitcoin deposited into the reserve would be subject to a 20-year minimum holding period during which the assets could not be "sold, swapped, auctioned, encumbered, or otherwise disposed of for any purpose." Two years before the holding period ends, Treasury would submit recommendations to continue holding or permit a controlled release; afterward, the Treasury secretary could recommend selling up to 10% of reserve assets during any two-year period. Within one year of enactment, Treasury would study conditions under which Congress might permit earlier sales involving national security or financial stability. Committee chairman French Hill (R-AR) called the bill "a common-sense measure that brings digital assets held across federal agencies under Treasury custody and consistent oversight," while Waters and other Democrats opposed the measure on policy grounds.