If the current Congress passes one cannabis-related bill, it’s most likely going to be legislation that allows federally regulated banks to offer credit cards, savings accounts and other financial services to legal marijuana businesses.
That’s the bipartisan Secure and Fair Enforcement Act, or SAFE Act, which has passed the House Financial Services Committee and is awaiting a vote on the House floor.
“It’s the least marijuana marijuana bill,” said Michael Correia, the chief lobbyist for the National Cannabis Industry Association, which has around 300 people in Washington this week to meet with lawmakers and push for cannabis legislation.
Charge my weed, please. Menendez says marijuana businesses should be allowed to take credit cards and write checks.
Menendez is working on legislation to allow banks and credit unions to provide financial services to legal marijuana businesses.
The measure is silent on whether cannabis should be legalized, putting off that debate for another day. It just allows existing legal marijuana businesses to be able to write checks and take credit cards rather than carry bags of cash to pay their workers, pay their taxes or buy the equipment they need.
The House committee heard testimony earlier this year about employees being attacked because they got their pay in cash rather than a check, or robbers targeting all-cash marijuana businesses. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told the Senate Banking Committee that he wanted clarity on whether banks could service legal cannabis businesses.
“It’s not just a cannabis bill,” said Becky Dansky, executive director of the Safe and Responsible Banking Alliance, an advocacy group representing municipalities, banks and insurance companies. “It’s a banking bill. It’s a public safety bill.”
The bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., said the measure could reach the House floor as early as next month.
“It has a lot of industry support and it opens the door for other bills that are broader,” he said.
Groups not lobbying to legalize marijuana are pushing for the banking bill, such as the American Banking Association and the Independent Community Bankers of America.
Under current law, not only are banks hesitant to provide financial services to marijuana businesses in states where the drug is legal, but they could get in trouble for things like doing business with the company installing the lights for at a dispensary, ABA Vice President Tanner Daniel said.
“Banks are in the business of certainty,” Daniel said. “This is very gray area.”
Banks also have hesitated to lend money to hemp farmers even after Congress legalized marijuana’s non-psychoactive cousin.
Perlmutter said that could spur Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to allow the banking bill up for vote in his chamber if it passes the House. McConnell made sure that the recent farm bill legalized hemp, which he saw as a new cash crop for Kentucky’s tobacco farmers.
The 50 state banking associations recently wrote to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, seeking a hearing on the bill.
“Although we do not take a position on the legalization of marijuana, our members are committed to serving the financial needs of their communities – including those that have voted to legalize cannabis,” they wrote. “We believe federal action is necessary and support a solution that would allow banks to serve cannabis-related businesses in states where the activity is legal.
U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, a member of the Senate Banking Committee and a co-sponsor of the legislation in his chamber, said the narrow focus of the legislation could overcome opposition.
“It is tailored enough to achieve a goal and doesn’t get into the broader policy options about legalization of cannabis,” said Menendez, D-N.J. “There’s a growing caucus of voices, without casting views about what legislation should or shouldn’t be, that want to see those who do legalize, whether for medical or recreational, the opportunity to bank.”
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