The GOP Senate sponsor said that if President Donald Trump moved forward with cannabis rescheduling reform, it would be “an important domino” for bipartisan cannabis bank legislation.
In a Friday interview, Ask a Pol reporter Matt Laslo asked Sen. Bernie Moreno about comments he had made earlier about his Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation Banking Act.
Senator said, “We still have to see what we can accomplish in the Q4.” As you are aware, Democrats have a ton of work for us. The government must be funded, and we need to find funding. [the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA] Across the finish line. We’ve gotta get [Trump’s judicial nominations] done.”
Moreno was asked to comment on Trump’s endorsement for moving cannabis up from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. He said modest reforms are “obviously,” an “important “domino in the process. “There’s a great deal of concern among my colleagues if the rescheduling is not done before enacting any banking legislation.
“So we’ll look at that—but we have time. “We have time,” said the Republican Senator, who, despite not having filed SAFER Banking Act in this Congress yet, has stated.
Trump’s final decision on rescheduling is still up in the air. Despite his endorsement of the policy change on the campaign trail ahead of his election for a second term, he declined to restate that support when asked about it during a briefing late last month—though he did say a decision would come within weeks.
On Sunday, the president posted a video on his Truth Social platform promoting the health benefits of cannabis—suggesting that covering CBD under Medicare would be “the most important senior health initiative of the century.”
The reclassification of cannabis to Schedule III would enable marijuana companies to claim federal tax deductions, which they have been denied for years. However, it wouldn’t solve the problem that banks are not able to provide banking services. This problem would be resolved by the SAFER Banking Act which, in various forms, has been passed seven times during recent House sessions. The SAFER Banking Act’s path to passage was in doubt due to the GOP leadership’s general unwillingness to even advance incremental cannabis reform proposals.
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Meanwhile, during a House Appropriations Committee markup earlier this month, Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) criticized the exclusion of provisions to protect banks that work with state-licensed marijuana and hemp businesses from a key spending bill
Relatedly, a bipartisan coalition of 32 state and territory attorneys general from across the U.S. recently called on Congress to pass a marijuana banking bill to free up financial services access for licensed cannabis businesses.
The Democratic Senate sponsor of the marijuana banking bill recently said that, despite efforts to coordinate meetings around the legislation, other priorities have taken precedence for now.
In January, the office of Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH), who is again leading the effort on the House said, told MEDCAN24 that he would be filing the cannabis banking legislation this session but that its introduction was “not imminent” as some earlier reports had suggested.
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