A key Senate committee has officially scheduled a hearing for a bipartisan marijuana banking bill for next week.
The Senate Banking Committee will take up the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act on Thursday, May 11 at a meeting titled “Examining Cannabis Banking Challenges of Small Businesses and Workers.”
Hours before the hearing was scheduled, the panel’s chairman, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), told reporters that senators planned to “move quickly” on the legislation from Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Steve Daines (R-MT).
The description of the event, which will follow an executive session on unrelated matters, says that both senators will participate as witnesses.
The scheduling of a hearing comes as senators on both sides of the aisle have pushed for urgent action on the standalone measure.
The SAFE Banking Act would protect banks that work with state-legal cannabis businesses from being penalized by federal regulators. The latest version has been amended in several ways that have encouraged advocates, but the plan is to further revise it on the floor to incorporate additional equity provisions.
Brown recently indicated that action on the bill had been delayed because of what he described as attempts by banking industry representatives to use
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