A bipartisan marijuana banking bill that’s scheduled for a Senate committee markup next week has been revised in several key ways–primarily related to federal financial regulations, guidance and reporting requirements–according to full text of the the most recent version of the legislation that was obtained by Marijuana Moment on Tuesday.
It has not been officially filed. After weeks of negotiation, the senators finally came to an agreement. This is the most recent version of the bill, which differs from the iteration that Politico reported earlier on Tuesday.
This bill , which will be voted on by the Senate Banking Committee September 27,, has been at the forefront of advocates’ and stakeholders’ minds this session. Sens. Jeff Merkley, Steve Daines and seven others are listed as original sponsors.
Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer (DNY) applauded Tuesday the revised measure, stating that he intended to bring this legislation “to the floor of the Senate with all due urgency.”
Marijuana Moment has received the complete bill text, shortly after Politico published a section by section summary of the measure earlier on Tuesday.
The full text of the bill reveals what compromises were made to ensure bipartisan support. The majority of the new provisions can be found in Section 10, a part of the reform which Republicans strongly supported and some Democrats opposed because they feared it would undermine banking regulations.
Some of the most important changes are:
- The SAFER Banking Act, Section 7, removes the earlier language that prevented federal regulators from “discourage” financial institutions to work with state-legal cannabis businesses.
- The bill’s Section 10 now explains that regulators need to have a valid reason before they can request or require the closure of a bank account for any business.
- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was given an extra year to prepare guidance for financial institutions that serve state-licensed cannabis businesses.
- This standard now applies to “covered” mortgages. One example of a covered mortgage would be one “acquired, purchased or pledged by a Federal Home Loan Bank as collateral for an Advance from a Federal Home Loan Bank.”
- The section 10 was expanded to include, for instance, a “sense” of Congress language that stipulates that personal and political beliefs should not affect the decision-making of financial regulators.
- The bill was also revised to explicitly mention tribal communities at Section 10 and Section 11. This section requires federal regulators submit a congressional report on the access to banking of historically underbanked community. The report now includes tribes alongside minorities, women, veterans and small cannabis businesses sanctioned by the state. This was not the case when the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act (SAFE Banking Act) was introduced.
- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is now required to carry out a survey and produce a report every two years to identify the barriers that small and medium-sized business face in accessing their deposit accounts.
- The bill still requires reports to be submitted on small, minority, veteran and women-owned business. However, “diversity” and “inclusion” have been removed from section titles.
Politico ‘s report on the SAFE Banking Act is an amendment that is meant to be a replacement for the original legislation. The document Marijuana Moment received is a standalone law called the SAFER Banking Act. The markup next week is unclear in terms of how it will proceed procedurally. It’s not known if members will vote on a new bill, which will be filed formally in the near future, or if they would amend the previous measure with the substituted text.
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The proposed revisions appear to satisfy both sides, as Section 10 is kept “intact” (as Banking Committee member Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-ND, said this week), but with new provisions that promote equity in financial system.
Jack Reed, a senator from Rhode Island who is also a member of the Banking Committee, and has previously expressed concern about Section 10 in the Banking Act, said that the Senate had “talked extensively” regarding the language.
He said, “I believe we’ve solved most of the issues that we had. I hope we did so that we can pass it with a solid vote from the committee.”
Schumer, along with others, have discussed plans to amend legislation currently on the floor in order to adopt “critical” criminal justice provisions, such as expungements of prior marijuana convictions. They also called for a broader effort to repair harms caused by the drug war to be a “moral obligation” for Congress.
Daines’ spokesperson told Marijuana Moment that the senator is “open” about including the additional reform provision. However, he warned Democrats not to expand the bill’s scope significantly in a manner that would jeopardize GOP backing. Insiders claim that the bill, in its current form and as a stand-alone measure, has the Republican support needed to pass the Senate.
A coalition of 35 cannabis associations, drug policy reform organizations and a leading national labor union on Tuesday called for Congress to address “the humanitarian toll” of robberies that target cash-intensive marijuana businesses, by passing the SAFE Banking Act this year.
In July, the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp, along with other trade groups representing marijuana business in 16 states and Washington, D.C., sent a letter to Brown and Banking Committee ranking member Tim Scott (R-SC), imploring them to pass the cannabis banking legislation “without further delay.”
The American Bankers Association (ABA), too, reiterated its call for passage. All 50 state chapters of the ABA did the same. Insurance and union organizations also wrote to Congress.
also celebrated its 10-year anniversary in July, since the introduction the first version of the SAFE Banking Act.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, said separately in a letter sent to President Joe Biden recently that he should support the congressional push for marijuana bank reform at the same time the Drug Enforcement Administration begins its review of the cannabis schedule after receiving a rescheduling recommendations from the top federal agency.
Below, you can read the complete text for the SAFER Banking Act as it was recently revised:
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Photo by Philip Steffan.
The article Here is the new Marijuana Banking Bill text that senators negotiated as committee prepares to vote next week first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
