SAFE Banking Act fails to make final senate bill, Schumer vows to try again in next Congress December 21, 2022 By Griffin Coop Cannabis banking reform will have to wait (again). The United States Senate failed to include the SAFE Banking Act in a large spending package they passed Tuesday. Supporters had hoped to add the SAFE Banking Act — which passed the House seven times but never the Senate — to the omnibus spending bill during the lame duck session. The bill would have allowed financial institutions to provide services to cannabis businesses despite cannabis being illegal federally. New York Senator Chuck Schumer blamed Republicans who opposed the reforms but said he will “go back at it” in the next session. From Marijuana Moment: Schumer placed the blame at the feet of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat Toomey (R-PA), who he says objected to including the reform in the spending bill. A Senate source had said last week that the majority leader was “making a last ditch effort” to attach the cannabis banking language to the spending bill—but the majority leader wasn’t able to get the deal done. He said the issue would need to wait until the next Congress, which will see Republicans in control of the House. “We had very good bipartisan support. We had hoped to get it done,” Schumer said. “I worked for months with different Republicans, led by [Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT)]—but at the last minute, both senators Toomey and McConnell opposed it.” Cannabis stocks tumbled Tuesday on the news that the cannabis reform language would not be included in the larger bill, with some stocks falling by as much as 25%, according to Forbes. The bill enjoyed support from banking institutions, including the American Bankers Association and the Arkansas Bankers Association. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton said during a hearing in July that he opposed the bill and called it a “gift to the cartels and gangs.”
