A bipartisan proposal to put the federal government’s Bitcoin holdings on firmer statutory footing has moved into the House Financial Services Committee, where lawmakers can amend the text before it advances any further.
The measure, H.R. 8957, known as the American Reserve Modernization Act of 2026, would convert an existing executive-branch practice into standing law and place seized digital assets under more uniform Treasury custody.Rep.
Nick Begich of Alaska introduced the bill in May 2026 with Rep. Jared Golden of Maine as co-lead and a sizable group of additional sponsors from both parties.
After introduction it was sent to Financial Services, the panel with primary jurisdiction over banking, capital markets, and digital-asset policy.
A markup session gives members a chance to debate language, offer substitutes, and vote on whether the bill should be reported to the full House.
The legislation would create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve inside the Treasury Department for Bitcoin obtained mainly through criminal and civil forfeiture. A separate Digital Asset Stockpile would hold other tokens seized by federal agencies.
The goal is to end the current patchwork in which different departments store and account for the same class of assets under inconsistent rules.
Supporters argue that centralized custody, clearer reporting, and congressional oversight would reduce operational risk and make the government’s digital holdings more transparent.
Key provisions in the introduced version include a long mandatory holding period for reserve Bitcoin, public attestations of holdings, independent audits, and a study of ways to add more Bitcoin without new taxes or borrowing.
The bill also states that nothing in it authorizes the government to seize privately owned Bitcoin.
Those details remain subject to change during markup; committee substitutes have already altered reporting cadence and lock-up mechanics in later drafts.
If the committee reports the bill and the House later passes it, the statute could tighten federal control over crypto-assets the government already owns.
Consistent custody standards and regular public reporting would give Congress and the public a clearer picture of what the United States holds and how those assets are safeguarded.
That, in turn, could strengthen financial security practices around high-value digital property and reduce the chance of fragmented or poorly documented inventories.
The bill does not, by itself, rewrite the broader market-structure rules that govern exchanges, issuers, or retail trading.
Its focus is narrower: how the federal government manages assets it has already taken through legal process.
Passage would still send a signal that Congress intends to treat Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset rather than as inventory to be auctioned off on a short timetable.
Further steps remain. After committee action the measure would need a House floor vote, Senate consideration, and a presidential signature.
A companion approach has not yet cleared the Senate. Even so, moving a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill through markup is a concrete step toward writing existing policy into statute and subjecting it to regular legislative review.