Leading anti-marijuana groups are raising alarms about the possibility of putting cannabis banking reform in the cryptocurrency bill which is advancing this week on the Senate Floor. They ask for their supporters’ “help” to encourage senators to reject a potential amendement that may be proposed.
Smart Approaches to Marijuana Action sent out an email on Wednesday saying that “the marijuana industry and its lobbyists always work to attach promarijuana legislation to any piece of legislative progress through Congress.” It is concerned about the possibility they will try to introduce cannabis banking into the largely non-related Guiding and Establishing Nation Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS).
The Senate is expected to take up the GENIUS Act soon, a bill pertaining to cryptocurrency, and industry representatives are working to incorporate SAFE Banking terminology, SAM stated. This bipartisan law would prohibit financial regulators penalizing banks for simply working with marijuana businesses that operate under state laws.
The bill stated that it would “keep marijuana illegal on the federal level, while encouraging bank to accept illegal federal proceeds.” The bill said that this would result in a rapid growth of the marijuana industry.
The risks of giving bank access to marijuana businesses are many. They include giving cartels money-laundering access who use legalization as a cover, increasing Wall Street investment in the marijuana industry and creating a precedent that would allow other criminal activity to be given banking access.
MEDCAN24 reported on Wednesday, despite SAM’s evident concerns, that an industry lobbyist was unaware of any planned use of the GENIUS Act to facilitate SAFE Banking. As of the date this article was published, there had not been any amendments related to SAFE submitted for Senate review.
SAM encourages supporters in all cases to speak to their legislators and ask them not to add SAFE Banking to the GENIUS Act.
The anti-cannabis organization has drafted a letter for individuals to present to their Senators.
I am writing to you to let you know that a Senate amendment to the GENIUS Act could allow marijuana to access the United States’ financial system.
The SAFE Banking Act is a modified version of this amendment (H.R. 2891 & S. 1323 in the 118th Congress) would keep marijuana federally illegal while encouraging banks to accept federally illegal proceeds.
Giving banking access to companies involved in the illegal trade of substances such as
-Giving money laundering access to international drug cartels who are already using the cover of legalization; – Radically increasing Wall Street investment for the marijuana industry, accelerating its transformation into the next Big Tobacco; and
Giving criminals access to banking services is a bad precedent.
The public’s health data and the opinion of the general population strongly indicate that it is time to put a brake on marijuana use. There has been an increase in mental illness and drugged-driving deaths, as well as increased visits to emergency rooms and poison control centers, worker accidents, and absenceeeism. Giving access to banking will create an industry focused on denying marijuana’s science and encouraging heavy usage of its products.
Please oppose and remove this amendment from the final GENIUS Act.
The last Congress saw lawmakers discuss the possibility of merging cryptocurrency and cannabis legislation. However, this did not happen. The standalone Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act did clear one Senate committee with the chamber under Democratic control, but it was never brought up for a floor vote—much to the disappointment of advocates and stakeholders.
It’s an open question whether marijuana reform legislation has a shot at passing in the short term, with Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress and opponents of legalizing pot filling key leadership roles. It’s not because President Donald Trump, who endorsed federal rescheduling of cannabis and Florida legalization during his campaign, hasn’t backed the issue. He has been quiet on this issue since he took office.
According to the White House, it said in a statement last month that there are “no plans” for marijuana reform initiatives that Trump supported while campaigning. CNN was told by several sources that the president tried to include cannabis banking legislation in a funding bill before taking office late last year.
A Republican member of the House said that he was hopeful in March that Congress would be able get the marijuana banking bill through “the finish-line” during this session. He argued that the existing barriers for financial services to the cannabis industry are a “second level” of prohibition.
Cannabis industry banking challenges came up in several congressional hearings in March, including a Senate Banking Committee meeting on debanking where senators on both sides of the aisle addressed the lack of financial services access for marijuana businesses.
Meanwhile, in January congressional researchers released a report detailing the subject of debanking—while making a point to address how the marijuana industry’s financial services access problem “sits at the nexus” of a state-federal policy conflict that complicates the debate.
Separately, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) announced in December that it’s convening focus groups comprised of marijuana businesses to better understand their experiences with access to banking services under federal prohibition.
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Industry remains disappointed with lack of progress made on cannabis banking under the previous administration.
A Senate source told MEDCAN24 in December that Republican House and Senate leadership “openly and solely blocked” then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) attempt to include the bill in a government funding bill as the session came to a close.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) had challenged the idea that there was enough GOP support for the SAFER Banking Act to pass on the Senate floor during the lame duck session.
Warren accused certain Republican members of overstating support for the legislation within their caucus, while also taking a hit at Trump for doing “nothing” on cannabis reform during his time in office as he makes a policy pivot ahead of the election by coming out in support of the marijuana banking bill and federal rescheduling.
In an interview with MEDCAN24, Sen. John Hickenlooper said that the lack of Republican support is the biggest obstacle to passing the marijuana banking legislation. And he said if Trump is serious about seeing the reform he recently endorsed enacted, he needs to “bring us some Republican senators.”
Prior to becoming House speaker, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) consistently opposed cannabis reform, including on incremental issues like cannabis banking and making it easier to conduct scientific research on the plant.
Meanwhile, on the one-year anniversary of a Senate committee’s passage of the SAFER Banking Act in September, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an analysis on the economic impact of the reform, including the likely increase in federally insured deposits from cannabis businesses by billions of dollars once banks receive protections for servicing the industry.
Separately, the CEO of the financial giant JPMorgan Chase said recently that the company “probably would” start providing banking services to marijuana businesses if federal law changed to permit it.
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