Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) says his panel will vote on sending a bipartisan marijuana banking bill to the floor “in the next two or three weeks.”
The committee held an initial hearing on the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, sponsored by Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Steve Daines (R-MT), last month. And now, the chairman says, it’s heading to a markup this month before advancing to the floor.
As its currently drafted, the measure would protect banks and credit unions, as well as depository institutions, from being penalized by federal regulators for working with state-licensed cannabis businesses.
“We’re looking at markup on [a fentanyl-related bill], the executive compensation issue and the SAFE Banking Act issue,” Brown told Bloomberg Law, adding that “we want to do all that in the next two or three weeks.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and others have discussed plans to amend the legislation on the floor to adopt “critical” criminal justice provisions such as expungements for prior marijuana convictions, calling broader effort to repair the harms of the drug war a “moral responsibility” for Congress.
It’s unclear if members will move to make any revisions to the measure in committee
Read full article on Marijuana Moment
