Legislation to allow banks and financial services to provide banking options to state-legal marijuana businesses has 131 sponsors in the House and Senate.
In the Senate, the SAFER Banking Act is sponsored by 34% of the entire US Senate with 34 total sponsors. It also has the support of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), as well as a bipartisan group of 22 attorneys general.
The legislation, which recently passed the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, would explicitly allow banks and other financial institutions such as credit unions to provide services to marijuana businesses that are legal under their state’s law. This includes debit card services, business loans and so forth.
In the House of Representatives H.R. 2891, the SAFE Banking Act of 2023, now has nearly 100 cosponsors at 97. This includes garnering 12 new sponsors in the past couple months, despite the updated SAFER Banking Act advancing in the Senate (the SAFE Banking Act was filed in April, whereas the SAFER Banking Act was filed in September).
Although it’s unclear if H.R. 2891 will receive a committee vote, better yet a vote by the full House, on the Senate side Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed in September that the measure would be voted on by the full Senate “very soon”. He reiterated last that the Senate is “getting close” to a vote.
If the Senate does pass the measure, it’s likely it would render the original SAFE Banking Act moot. However, until that happens H.R. 2891 remains the best vehicle for House lawmakers to sponsor if they want to indicate their support for marijuana banking.
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.”
