A congressional panel plans to hold a long-anticipated hearing next week on the challenges that state-legal cannabis businesses face in accessing the U.S. banking system.
The House subcommittee on consumer protection and financial institutions, chaired by Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., has scheduled a hearing for 2 p.m. on Feb. 13. Witnesses have not yet been announced.
Cannabis businesses in 33 states where the drug is legal either for medical or recreational purposes have been clamoring for federal legislation that would ease banks’ concerns about serving their industry.
Because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, many bankers fear that they will be penalized by their regulators if they dip their toes into the water. The pot industry’s lack of access to banking services has led some marijuana retailers to operate as cash-only businesses, causing headaches that range from difficulties in paying tax bills to fears about being robbed.
In an email Wednesday to reporters, a spokeswoman for Rep. Denny Heck, D-Wash., who has long supported legislation to address the issue, noted that next week’s hearing comes nearly six years after the introduction of the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act.
That measure, first submitted in 2013 by Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., would bar federal banking regulators from prohibiting or discouraging depository institutions from offering financial services to marijuana businesses.
While Perlmutter’s legislation has attracted Republican co-sponsors, it never got a committee vote while the GOP maintained a majority in the House of Representatives.
But the results of last November’s midterm elections, in which Democrats took control of the House, sparked hope in the marijuana industry that Congress will finally take action.
Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, and the independent Bernie Sanders — all presidential contenders in 2020 — are on board with a legislative remedy. President Trump
Momentum for federal legislation has also gotten a boost from the legalization of marijuana in additional states.
Last June, the Independent Community Bankers of America expressed its support for Perlmutter’s bill. The American Bankers Association has also endorsed efforts to provide greater clarity to banks operating in states where cannabis is legal.
