The chairman of a key Senate committee says lawmakers need to act on marijuana banking legislation \u201cthis year,\u201d and his Republican counterpart on the panel agrees that the issue will \u201ccome to a conclusion likely in this Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the House side, the GOP chairman of that chamber\u2019s committee of jurisdiction says that the cannabis banking problem is \u201cnot a priority for me\u201d while adding that he is \u201cnot closed off\u201d to the issue altogether.<\/p>\n
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) also reiterated that leadership was prepared to \u201cmove\u201d on the cannabis reform just before the collapse of a bank this month distracted members, and he disclosed that \u201cthe White House wants this fixed,\u201d as far as he\u2019s been told.<\/p>\n
Both Brown and the committee\u2019s ranking member, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), spoke at the American Bankers Association (ABA) Washington Summit on Wednesday\u2014one day after the lead GOP sponsor of the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act urged the financial sector to put pressure on Congress<\/a> to get the job done.<\/p>\n \u201cThe prognosis is positive,\u201d Brown said, adding that he\u2019s \u201chopeful we can do it relatively soon.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPrognosis is positive\u2026I\u2019m hopeful we can do it relatively soon.\u201d @SenateBanking<\/a> @BankingGOP<\/a> Chair @SenSherrodBrown<\/a> comments at #ABASummit<\/a> on likelihood of passing the bipartisan #SAFEBanking<\/a> Act. ABA urges Congress to pass this commonsense legislation. pic.twitter.com\/9I9SoBD2EJ<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 American Bankers Association (@ABABankers) March 22, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had been gearing up to reintroduce the marijuana banking bill before the Senate\u2019s Easter recess, he said. And while he\u2019s unclear where Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) currently stands on the issue, he said he\u2019s under the impression that the White House is supportive of the legislation.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a notable detail, as White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to say what President Joe Biden thinks<\/a> about the policy proposal during a briefing in January, stating that it was up to Congress.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem right now\u201d is that the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the broader economic fallout from that failure is an \u201cabsolutely essential crisis\u201d that\u2019s detracted from the cannabis reform. \u201cWe were very close to moving on something\u201d before that situation developed.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s good bipartisan support on this, especially depending on what states members are from,\u201d Brown said. \u201cBut I\u2019m very hopeful\u2014and this is something we need to do and we need to do it this year.\u201d<\/p>\n Scott, for his part, made clear that he\u2019s not especially supportive of the reform, but he recognizes that the SAFE Banking Act enjoys significant bipartisan backing, and he\u2019s confident it will be addressed in short order while the country has a broader conversation about federal marijuana legalization.<\/p>\n He said that one area where he and Brown agree is that the banking legislation should be taken up during regular order rather than brought directly to floor as part of a larger must-pass bill.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s an important decision, as opposed to rushing it to the floor where many of us will then stand strongly against the process and before we even address the underlying legislation,\u201d Scott, who many speculate will run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said. \u201cThe good news is we both agreed that the regular process, regular order, is very important for the SAFE Act.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere are Republicans who\u2019ve come out very positively on behalf of the SAFE Act. I\u2019m not one of those Republicans, but there is a bipartisan coalition who wants to have a serious conversation about the challenges that it would solve,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the question is: does that legislation actually solve more challenges than it creates harm?\u201d<\/p>\n Scott also said that lawmakers need to take on the broader debate about federal marijuana legalization, which is \u201csomething that we\u2019re going to have to wrestle with as a nation and as a Congress and get to an answer there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut there is a bipartisan coalition who wants to have that conversation, so I think that\u2019s good news,\u201d he said. \u201cBoth sides want to go through regular order\u2014that\u2019s better news. I think we\u2019ll come to a conclusion likely in this Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) also spoke at the ABA summit<\/a> on Wednesday. He stressed that the SAFE Banking Act is \u201cnot a priority\u201d on his agenda, though he acknowledged that several of his Republican colleagues on the panel such as Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH) are working to advance the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not closed off to this. I understand the societal implications and the challenges that are occurring here,\u201d he said, noting that he has voted against versions of the bill on several occasions. \u201cI don\u2019t think this is the proper means to solve a societal problem through finance.\u201d<\/p>\n The chairman added that he considers it problematic that Senate leadership \u201cwants to lay on this whole other layer of stuff on social justice issues to this circumstance, rather than getting to the core of this issue, which is the legal status of cannabis in federal law.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou fix that, the banking issue is fixed,\u201d he said. \u201cThe bigger issue is the status of cannabis in federal law, and whether or not that fits and is appropriate to the class of drugs it sits with. Let\u2019s have that debate. The banking issue gets fixed as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n McHenry previously said that while he still opposes the banking proposal<\/a>, he wouldn\u2019t stand in its way.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, a coalition of cannabis industry associations sent a letter to Senate Banking Committee leadership, urging a swift action on the bipartisan banking legislation, which has cleared the House multiple times in past sessions only to stall in the Senate.<\/p>\n The National Cannabis Roundtable (NCR), National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA), U.S. Cannabis Council (USCC), Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA) and National Hispanic Cannabis Council (NHCC) led the letter to Brown and Scott.<\/p>\n They groups said that the committee should \u201cimmediately schedule a hearing to discuss the lack of access to banking and other financial resources that is harming the U.S. cannabis industry, and advance bipartisan legislation expeditiously to improve public safety and provide much-needed access to capital to these businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n ABA has been advocating for the banking legislation for years, and it released a poll last year that found 65 percent of Americans\u00a0want to see a fix to the cannabis banking problem<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advocates and industry stakeholders have run low on patience with the Senate after leadership failed to pass the banking reform, along with other modest proposals on issues like expungements, as part of\u00a0the so-called SAFE Plus package last session<\/a>.<\/p>\n Schumer said last week that\u00a0he\u2019s still committed to moving the legislation<\/a> with SAFE Banking sponsor Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), even with a divided Congress where Republicans control the House.<\/p>\n After last year\u2019s election, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said that\u00a0he believed it could take \u201cmany years from now\u201d<\/a>\u00a0to pass cannabis legislation if Democrats didn\u2019t get the job done during the lame duck session.<\/p>\n Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who also spoke at ABA\u2019s summit, said during a Senate Finance Committee hearing last week that regulators are separately exploring options to address the cannabis banking issue<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last year, she said that it\u2019s \u201cextremely frustrating\u201d that Congress has so far been unable to pass legislation like the SAFE Banking Act and\u00a0that Treasury is \u201csupportive\u201d of the proposal<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have\u00a0talked about it for a very long time<\/a>, and I agree with you: It\u2019s an important issue\u2014and it\u2019s an extremely frustrating one that we haven\u2019t been able to resolve it,\u201d she said at a House committee hearing.<\/p>\n New York Bill To Require Health Insurance Coverage Of Medical Marijuana Clears Assembly Committee<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Senate Banking Chairman Says \u2018We Need\u2019 To Pass Marijuana Banking Bill \u2018This Year,\u2019 Disclosing White House Support<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The chairman of a key Senate committee says lawmakers need to act on marijuana banking legislation \u201cthis year,\u201d and his Republican counterpart on the panel agrees that the issue will \u201ccome to a conclusion likely in this Congress.\u201d On the House side, the GOP chairman of that chamber\u2019s committee ofContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62894"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62895,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62894\/revisions\/62895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Senate Banking Chairman Says \u2018We Need\u2019 To Pass Marijuana Banking Bill \u2018This Year,\u2019 Disclosing White House Support<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"