Congresswoman Blasts Lack Of Cannabis Banking Protections In Key Spending Bill

A Democratic congresswoman is criticizing the exclusion of provisions to protect banks that work with state-licensed marijuana and hemp businesses from a key spending bill that advanced this week.

During a House Appropriations Committee markup of the legislation covering Financial Service and General Government (FSGG) on Wednesday, Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) said she was “disappointed” about the cannabis policy omissions.

“Without this common sense legislation, which has been included in past bills, this bill fails to ensure that all businesses have access to financial services,” she said.

While Minnesota recently legalized adult-use marijuana, McCollum focused her comments largely on hemp, which was federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill.

“The hemp [industry] in the past six years—and across the country, in Minnesota—have rebuilt a domestic supply chain of hemp and hemp products,” the congresswoman said.

Notably, while she advocated for hemp and cannabis industry banking access, McCollum also voiced support for her colleague Rep. Andy Harris’s (R-MD) work on the issue. Harris has sought to enact a sweeping ban on intoxicating cannabinoid products derived from hemp which make up a sizable portion of the market.

“Hemp is used in a variety of projects, textiles, paper, cardboard, alternatives, construction of concrete, insulation, drywall, lotions [and] oils for therapeutic and medical purposes,” she said.

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“Hemp businesses are legal. Banks serving hemp businesses must file suspicious activity reports with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network,” she said. “Many banks find this heavy compliance burdensome, and they live in fear of federal penalties. As a result, many hemp businesses operate primarily in cash—jeopardizing the safety of their employees, their customers—or they seek the few banks who are willing to accept the risk until we do something to regulate this common sense hemp and cannabis policy.”

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.

Asked about recent comments from Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH)—the lead GOP sponsor of the SAFER Banking Act this session who told Marijuana Moment that he doesn’t expect the bill to come up until this fall—Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said, “Hopefully sooner than later in my mind.”

In January, the office of Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH), who is again leading the effort on the House said, told Marijuana Moment that he would be filing the cannabis banking legislation this session but that its introduction was “not imminent” as some earlier reports had suggested.

At Wednesday’s hearing, McCollum didn’t seek to amend the spending bill at hand. The legislation does, however, include a report directing federal agencies to assess the “adequacy” of state-level marijuana regulatory models.

It also includes longstanding provisions blocking Washington, D.C. from using its tax dollars to legalize cannabis sales.

While local lawmakers have found ways to work around that policy to some extent by significantly expanding access to an existing medical marijuana program, advocates view the rider, championed by Harris, as a troubling infringement on D.C.’s autonomy.

The White House has called the District’s move to enact local marijuana reform an example of a “failed” policy that “opened the door to disorder.”

Photo courtesy of Brendan Cleak.