The SAFER Banking Act appears to be just “one or two votes” short of having enough votes to pass the full United States Senate.
Congressional staffers for two senators who are sponsoring the SAFER Banking Act both say that the Senate needs just one or two more Republicans to support the measure for it to have the 60 votes needed to be passed through the full Senate. This is in line with comments Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer made last week when he said the Senate is “getting close” to a vote.
Schumer vowed in September that the measure would be voted on by the full Senate “very soon”. That remark came after the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs gave approval to the bill.
The SAFER Banking Act is sponsored by 34% of the entire US Senate and 56% of all Senate Democrats. The measure would allow banks and other financial institutions to provide services to marijuana businesses that are legal under their state’s law. This would allow banks to offer marijuana businesses debit card services, loans and so forth.
The SAFER Banking Act has the support of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), as well as a bipartisan group of 22 attorneys general.
According to polling released last month, “by greater than a 2-to-1 margin” adults in the United States support Congress passing legislation “that allows cannabis businesses to access banking services.”
