U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), who chairs the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, says Congress will need to act before marijuana businesses can gain reliable access to the federal banking system, even with the Trump administration moving to reschedule marijuana.
Speaking Tuesday during an appearance aired by C-SPAN, Scott said federal lawmakers still need to address marijuana’s legal status before banks can have clear protection for working with state-licensed marijuana companies.
“Congress is going to have to make it legal, because today even though the president has declassified it or reduced its impact, the truth is it is still illegal,” Scott said, referring to the administration’s recent move to federally reschedule marijuana. “Therefore the banking system cannot allow access to our federal banking system. You can on the state leve, but on the federal level, until it becomes a legal conversation, until that’s solved”.
Scott said he does believe the issue will eventually be addressed, pointing to the SAFER Banking Act, legislation that would provide federal protections to banks, credit unions and other financial institutions that work with state-legal marijuana businesses.
Scott said the legislation would “allow for the banking question to be solved by making it legal to bank it,” warning that the current lack of banking access leaves many operators handling large amounts of cash.
“What you don’t want is to have a situation where you have these cash rooms where you have hundreds of thousands of dollars cash sitting in a location,” Scott said. “Everyone knows you can’t bank it and therefore the criminal activity is much higher in these places.”
The SAFER Banking Act has not yet been filed for the 2025/2026 session.
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