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Senators are reportedly planning to propose a variety of amendments to a bipartisan marijuana banking bill<\/a> at Wednesday\u2019s Senate Banking Committee markup, several sources familiar with the discussions say.<\/p>\n While the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act was formally introduced last week following weeks of bipartisan negotiations, there is still evidently disagreement among members over issues such as cannabis industry access to stock exchanges, banking regulations aimed at preventing discriminatory enforcement, broad justice-focused marijuana reform and more.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear which amendments may ultimately be filed, but there\u2019s also talk among certain Democratic members about moving to significantly expand the bill\u2019s social equity provisions, which would likely come up against strong resistance from GOP lawmakers as supporters work to bring the legislation to the floor and over to the Republican-controlled House.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are plenty of Democrats who aren\u2019t satisfied with banking alone. They want more,\u201d Don Murphy, director of government relations for the Marijuana Leadership Campaign and a former Republican Maryland lawmaker, told Marijuana Moment on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s likely they will offer amendments and then withdraw them. They can say, \u2018This is what I like but I know the votes aren\u2019t there. This isn\u2019t the vehicle or this isn\u2019t the time,’\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ll be able to go back to their base constituency and show that they advocated for more. This is an opportunity for people to make a statement. I expect a lot of that.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s expected that Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) will be filing more than one amendment dealing with broad social equity issues, as well as more prescriptive changes dealing with financial services that support those goals. His office did not confirm details about the prospective amendments with Marijuana Moment by the time of publication.<\/p>\n On the Republican side, there are plans to pursue an amendment to bolster provisions of Section 10, which generally concerns restricting banking regulators from using discretionary action to discriminate against any industry, including the firearms trade and energy sector that conservatives say are unfairly targeted due to ideological biases.<\/p>\n A source familiar with the planning said an amendment will be introduced to strike certain language that still provides banking supervisors with enforcement discretion. The text of these proposals has not been released yet, however.<\/p>\n In a X Spaces interview with Politico on Tuesday, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) signaled that he was looking to amend the bill along those lines, though he said that a manager\u2019s amendment with various technical changes will be introduced and may inform what additional revisions members pursue.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a little bit of language cleanup that I want, particularly in Section 10,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cI just want to make sure that we don\u2019t super empower the bureaucracy too much because that\u2019s the last thing I ever want to do with any piece of legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that he\u2019s \u201cconfident\u201d the language he disagrees with will be removed and that his goal is to be a \u201cyes\u201d vote.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in a press release on Tuesday, Minorities for Medical Marijuana (M4MM) said that amendment will be filed to expand \u201cthe types of institutions that could provide financial support to cannabis operators, putting it on the same playing field as the hemp industry.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, this amendment will lower barriers to entry and make the legal cannabis market more equitable,\u201d the group said.<\/p>\n The way it\u2019s described seems to speak to industry stakeholders\u2019 requests to revise the SAFER Banking Act in a way that would allow them to access capital markets. However, the group did not provide the text of the measure, nor did it identify the sponsor.<\/p>\n All told, it appears clear that the revised bill introduced this month is not in its final form, and members are still eager to leverage the committee process to secure additional changes that run the gamut.<\/p>\n If it reaches the floor, those dynamics are expected to come into force again. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), for example, has committed to filing amendments to promote state-level cannabis expungements and marijuana consumers\u2019 gun rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014 For what it\u2019s worth, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said last week that the SAFER Banking Act will pass \u201cdecisively\u201d out of his panel<\/a>\u00a0this week, as senators discuss possible tweaks on its path to the floor.<\/p>\n In a statement last week, the lead GOP sponsor of the legislation, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), touted provisions of the legislation that he said would\u00a0protect firearm and energy companies in Montana \u201cfrom the Left\u2019s woke agenda.\u201d<\/a> His office has also said that the senator is open to attaching the expungements provisions Schumer is proposing.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a group that represents state lawmakers across the U.S. urged Senate leaders this week to pass the SAFER Banking Act<\/a> to provide a \u201cmuch-needed solution\u201d to the \u201cunsafe and untenable\u201d challenges that the cannabis industry faces under prohibition.<\/p>\n Last week, a coalition of 35 cannabis trade associations, drug policy reform groups and a top national labor union called on Congress to help address\u00a0the \u201chumanitarian toll\u201d of robberies targeting cash-intensive marijuana businesses<\/a>\u00a0by passing the SAFE Banking Act \u201cthis year.\u201d<\/p>\n The American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp (ATACH)\u2014along with trade groups representing marijuana businesses in 16 states plus Washington, D.C.\u2014also sent a letter to Brown and Banking Committee Ranking Member Tim Scott (R-SC) in July, imploring them to\u00a0pass the cannabis banking bill \u201cwithout further delay.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Also, the American Bankers Association (ABA) also\u00a0renewed its call for the passage<\/a>\u00a0of the legislation. And all 50 of its state chapters did the same, as did insurance and union organizations,\u00a0in recent letters to congressional leadership<\/a>.<\/p>\n 66 New York Lawmakers Urge Governor To Sign Bill Allowing Bulk Marijuana Sales To Tribal Retailers<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Senators Expected To File Multiple Amendments To Marijuana Banking Bill During Committee Meeting On Wednesday<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Senators are reportedly planning to propose a variety of amendments to a bipartisan marijuana banking bill at Wednesday\u2019s Senate Banking Committee markup, several sources familiar with the discussions say. While the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act was formally introduced last week following weeks of bipartisan negotiations, thereContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":68889,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68888"}],"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=68888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68890,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68888\/revisions\/68890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Senators Expected To File Multiple Amendments To Marijuana Banking Bill During Committee Meeting On Wednesday<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"