The 2yr olds in the party like mitch & kevin will sink this As advocates and stakeholders wait to see whether a large-scale spending bill will contain marijuana banking reform, the incoming Republican chair of a key House committee says that while he still opposes the proposal, he wouldn’t stand in its way.
At the same time, reform friendly law enforcement representatives are sending a clear and coordinated message to Congress to pass the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act now with the limited time that’s left in the lame duck session.
The omnibus appropriations legislation that supporters are hoping will serve as the vehicle for the cannabis banking measure is expected to be released as soon as Monday. There’s been a mix of optimism and pessimism as to the prospects of seeing that language attached, with doubts compounding in recent days as key lawmakers like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have voiced opposition to enacting the marijuana reform as part of the broader legislation.
An attempt to pass SAFE Banking through the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) already failed earlier this month, which McConnell celebrated and later said should inform the congressional approach to the spending package.
House SAFE Banking sponsor Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) has been “talking to leadership” about moving the reform through the appropriations process, a staffer with his office told Marijuana Moment last week. Senate Banking Committee Chairman (D-OH) has signaled that he sees cannabis banking as a likely 2023 issue, though a staffer said he’d still be open to passing it through appropriations if it contained broader provisions.
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), who will serve as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee in the next Congress, is now indicating that he similarly feels that the issue will need to be decided after the lame duck. The congressman told Punchbowl News that he remains he remains opposed to SAFE Banking, but he left the door open to advancing it if that’s the will of his Republican colleagues.
“What I’ve pledged is having an open process. I told my members my view of it,” he said. “Members are able to come to their own conclusion about the bill. It’s so variable state by state.”
He said that GOP support for the legislation will be largely contingent on whether lawmakers seek to attach additional provisions like expungements and move it as part of a so-called SAFE Plus package, which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has been working to finalize and which other members like Brown have insisted upon.
“You had a wide, bipartisan vote in the House” when it passed SAFE Banking as a standalone, McHenry said. “So if the Senate had just taken that, you could see a substantial vote in the Senate as well. I think the mistake they made was trying to expand beyond what [Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO)r] so masterfully negotiated here in the House.”
Punchbowl News reporter Brendan Pedersen spoke about the interview with McHenry during an appearance on MSNBC, repeatedly emphasizing that the marijuana banking proposal “will not be included in the omnibus” and that it will likely be addressed in the next Congress.
“This is something that has a lot of support. It’s a bipartisan support here, but it is not going to be in this,” he said, adding that McConnell and other GOP members have a “bunch of concerns.”
Some of those concerns are based on a Justice Department memo on SAFE Banking that laid out the agency’s own reservations about possible unintended consequences of the reform as it relates to issues like money laundering enforcement.
While sources say those issues have since been resolved since DOJ distributed the memo at the request of certain Republican senators—a few of whom met with Justice Department staff this month to go over the legislation—it’s apparent that McConnell and others are not satisfied.
But supporters haven’t thrown in the towel quite yet, with a senior Democratic Senate staffer telling Marijuana Moment and other outlets on Friday that Schumer has been “making a last ditch effort” to put cannabis banking reform in the omnibus, for example.
Meanwhile, law enforcement representatives and cannabis industry executives are also pitching their case to Congress to pass SAFE Banking during the lame duck session. A campaign called Law Enforcement 4 Safe has proliferated on social media in recent days to deliver that message