The latest push for federal cannabis banking reform in the United States passed a markup hearing in the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday, demonstrating bipartisan support for allowing state-legal marijuana businesses to access financial services and setting up the bill for a full vote in the chamber.
The outcome of Wednesday’s Senate Banking Committee hearing improves the prospects that regular financial institutions can serve state-legal cannabis businesses despite federal marijuana prohibition, reducing the MJ industry’s inconvenient and dangerous dependence on doing business in cash.
The 23-member committee voted 14-9 in favor of sending the bill to the Senate floor with technical amendments.
It’s the first time the banking legislation – rebranded as the SAFER (Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation) Banking Act – has garnered a yes vote in the Senate.
Charlie Bachtell, CEO of Chicago-headquartered multistate cannabis company Cresco Labs, said Wednesday’s vote represented “a big step in a multistep process.”
“We still have a lot of work in front of us,” Bachtell said in a media briefing after the vote.
“It sounds like some refinements are going to be needed before the bill gets to the floor for a full Senate vote.
“But I don’t want to undersell the importance of what happened today.”
However, the legislation is still far from becoming law. And its prospects in the House are unclear.
Next, the SAFER Banking Act faces a possible federal government shutdown on Oct. 1 amid a political battle between the Democrat-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
That potential shutdown would pose risks for SAFER Banking as it winds its way through Congress, burning time that legislators could otherwise use to pass legislation.
Plaudits for bill’s progress
Regardless of the political unknowns, Wednesday’s committee vote was hailed by the regulated cannabis industry and related interests as a step in the right direction.
The vote comes “at a time where it could not be more urgently needed to help the regulated cannabis industry … be able to compete against the growing threat of an illicit market that greatly risks public safety and consumer safety,” Saphira Galoob, executive director of the Washington DC-based National Cannabis Roundtable, said in a statement.
The bill “should, in theory, eliminate the public safety risk related to the all-cash nature of the cannabis industry,” Ed Schmults, CEO of California-headquartered marijuana company StateHouse Holdings, said in a statement.
“We expect that, over time, the cost of capital for cannabis companies will begin to come down as well.”
