It’s not just marijuana businesses that stand to benefit from a bipartisan cannabis banking bill, a senator and top insurance official said on Thursday. It’s also about safeguards for ancillary companies that serve the industry—like a lightbulb manufacturer whose product malfunctions in a grow house, catching fire and creating insurance liabilities.
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) gave the lightbulb example during a Senate Banking Committee hearing, where he talked about the need to pass the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which also contains insurance-related provisions that were integrated from separate legislation he’s sponsoring.
According to congress.gov, this technically marks the first Senate hearing on the SAFE Banking Act during the 117th Congress, even if the legislation was only briefly discussed as part of a broader meeting on insurance issues.
“I’m concerned that businesses that have nothing to do with cannabis could face serious consequences” under the current law, Menendez said, addressing Kathleen Birrane, a representative of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).
“Imagine a scenario where a New Jersey lightbulb manufacturer sells a product to a state-legalized cannabis business and there’s a fire related to the lightbulb causing the business to suffer loss,” he said.
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