Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed this past weekend that federal legislation to allow banks to work with state-legal marijuana businesses will soon reach the Senate floor.
US Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaking at the 2023 New York City Cannabis Parade & Rally on Saturday.
Senator Schumer said that not only will lawmakers “put the bill on the floor”, it will include a provision allowing for the expungement of past marijuana convictions.
“We will put the bill on the floor and we will add to it expungement of the records of all of those who suffered from the over criminalization of marijuana”, said Schumer at the 2023 New York City Cannabis Parade & Rally on Saturday. “The SAFE Banking Act is a good thing.”
Schumer also said Senate leaders would attach a social justice provision to the bill.
“We need to do social justice and attach it to the SAFE Act and pass it together. So I’m with you all the way. I can’t wait when we’ll come back and celebrate here in Union Square in the near future and say cannabis is legalized in all of the United States of America.”
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown recently said that the committee planned to “move quickly” to pass the legislation.
“We struck a real victory here in New York with legalization, which I pushed the legislature to do,” said Schumer. “While there are definitely real changes in implementation in this state, no one—no one—can take away what legalizing marijuana means as a bellwether in this country. Now Congress has to catch up. I’m working on Congress to catch up to New York.”
You can view Schumer’s full speech at Saturday’s rally by clicking here.
