A revised bipartisan marijuana banking bill has officially been filed in the Senate, one week before a key committee is scheduled to vote on the legislation. But its prospects in the GOP-controlled House remain uncertain, with a key committee chairman declining to say whether he’d take up the legislation if it crosses over to his chamber.
The renamed Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act, sponsored by Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Steve Daines (R-MT), was introduced on Wednesday—one day after Marijuana Moment first reported on the finalized language.
The amended bill is the product of months of negotiations as senators worked to build bipartisan buy-in and get it in passable form. It’s set to receive a markup in the Senate Banking Committee on September 27. After that point, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said on Tuesday he intends to “bring it to the floor with all due speed.”
In a joint statement shared with Marijuana Moment on Wednesday, Schumer, Merkley, Daines and Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) applauded the bill introduction.
“This legislation will help make our communities and small businesses safer by giving legal cannabis businesses access to traditional financial institutions, including bank accounts and small business loans,” the senators said. “It also prevents federal bank regulators from ordering a bank or credit union to close an account based on reputational risk.”
Here are some of the key changes from the previous Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act:
- In Section 7, the SAFER Banking Act omits earlier language preventing federal regulators from taking action that “discourages” financial institutions from working with state-legal marijuana businesses.
- However, Section 10 of the bill now spells out how regulators must broadly have a “valid” reason for requesting or requiring the termination of bank accounts for any business.
- It was revised to give the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) one year, rather than 180 days, to develop guidance for financial institutions serving state-licensed marijuana businesses.
- The original bill said that income derived from state-legal cannabis business activity couldn’t be used to deny “federally backed mortgages.” That’s been revised to say that standard applies to a “covered” mortgage. A new example of such a covered mortgage is one that’s “acquired or purchased by a Federal Home Loan Bank or pledged as collateral for an advance from a Federal Home Loan Bank.”
- Section 10 has been expanded, for example to include a “sense of Congress” language stipulating that the personal and political beliefs of financial regulators should not influence their decisionmaking.
- The legislation would newly require federal banking regulators to work with state banking supervisors and the secretaries of commerce and treasury and, within two years of enactment, form rules or guidance to increase access to deposit accounts for businesses and customers and to enable banks and credit unions to more effectively maintain customer relationships—especially for those in rural, low-and moderate-income areas, Tribal communities and unbanked businesses and consumers.
- There’s a new requirement for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to conduct a biennial survey and report to identify barriers to accessing deposit accounts for small-and medium-sized businesses.
- Further, the bill has been revised to include explicit mention of tribal communities in Section 11, which requires federal regulators to submit a report to Congress on access to banking for historically underbanked communities. Tribes are now listed beside minorities, veterans, women and small state-sanctioned cannabis businesses as subjects of that report—which is not the case in the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act as introduced.
- While required reports on data concerning small and minority-, veteran- and women-owned businesses are still in the bill, the phrase “diversity and inclusion” has been removed from the relevant section titles
Read more at Marijuana Moment