Maryland Governor Wes Moore announced today that he is leading a group of governors in urging Congress to advance the SAFE Banking Act, legislation designed to give state-licensed marijuana businesses greater access to traditional banking services.
“I’m leading a group of governors in calling on Congress to advance the SAFE Banking Act,” Moore said in a statement. “Legal cannabis businesses in states like Maryland still run mostly on cash. That makes them targets for robbery and puts workers, customers, and the surrounding community at risk.”
Moore noted that “This bipartisan legislation would let them use the same banking system as every other legal business.”
The SAFE Banking Act of 2026, introduced in June as S. 4942 and H.R. 9471, would establish federal protections for banks, credit unions and other financial institutions that provide services to state-licensed marijuana businesses.
Under the legislation, federal banking regulators would generally be prohibited from penalizing financial institutions solely for serving marijuana businesses operating in compliance with state law. The proposal would also establish protections involving lending, deposit insurance and other financial services.
The Senate legislation was introduced by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), with Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Steve Daines of Montana among its original cosponsors. The House version was introduced by Representative David Joyce (R-OH), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, alongside lawmakers from both parties.
The governors’ effort follows a separate push last year by a bipartisan coalition of 32 attorneys general, including Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, who called on Congress to approve marijuana banking reform.
That coalition argued that bringing marijuana businesses into the regulated financial system would reduce public safety risks while improving tax collection, financial transparency and government oversight. The attorneys general also emphasized that banking reform would not require states to legalize marijuana or change its federal legal status.
Moore’s announcement comes as Congress approaches the end of its current two-year session, with marijuana banking legislation remaining unresolved despite repeated bipartisan efforts to establish federal protections for financial institutions serving the industry. If the SAFE Banking Act isn’t passed into law by the end of the year, it will need to be reintroduced in the new Congress.
Moore’s announcement did not specify which other governors are participating in the effort. The Marijuana Herald has reached out to the governor’s office for additional details, including a list of participating governors, and will update this article if further information becomes available.
