The Republican senator who heads up the Banking Committee says the fact that marijuana remains illegal at the federal level while more states legalize it has created a “quandary” for cannabis businesses and banks that wish to serve them.
“Congress is going to have to make it legal, because today even though the president has declassified it or reduced its impact, the truth is it is still illegal,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who chairs the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, said on Tuesday, referring to the Trump administration’s recent move to federally reschedule marijuana.
“Therefore the banking system cannot allow access to our federal banking system. You can on the state level—but on the federal level, until it becomes a legal conversation, until that’s solved,” you can’t, the senator said.
Scott said he does think the issue will get solved, pointing to legislation called the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act that would provide federal protections to banks that work with state-legal cannabis businesses. Versions of that legislation have been passed by the House of Representatives several times but have never received a vote on the Senate floor.
The bill would “allow for
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