The sponsor of the SAFE Banking Act, Rep. Ed Perlmutter, recently stated that he’s planning to attach an amendment to the proposal for a broader measure that deals with innovation and research in the manufacturing and technology sectors. The congressman is looking for another vehicle to pursue his initiative after it was removed from a separate defense legislation in 2021.
The measure’s language had been successfully attached to the National Defense Authorization Act on the House side but was removed later, during bicameral negotiations. At the time, the congressman said that senate leadership was to blame for the decision to remove the banking amendment from the legislation.
Perlmutter’s measure has stalled in the senate, despite clearing the house in five forms. The house sponsor’s most recent attempt to get the measure enacted is filing an amendment that contains language from the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking (“SAFE”) Act to the America COMPETES Act, which doesn’t deal with issues concerning marijuana.
In a press release, Perlmutter stated that small and big marijuana-related businesses and their employees needed access to capital as well as the banking system in order to operate in a safe and efficient manner and compete in the burgeoning global marijuana marketplace. He added that the SAFE Act was a good opportunity to enact federal marijuana reform this year and would ensure that marijuana businesses were treated the same as other legitimate and legal businesses.
The congressman is committed to getting his measure approved and signed into law, despite having plans to retire from congress after this session. It is uncertain whether the America COMPETES Act will be an effective vehicle for the marijuana banking bill.
To be formally considered on the house floor when the organization initiates proceedings for the research and innovation act, the new cannabis banking act amendment will need to go through the House Rules Committee. The deadline for filing amendments was last Friday. The panel is scheduled to take amendments up this week.
This failure to approve the modest banking initiative has some GOP party members puzzled, as Democrats have control of the White House and are also the majority in both chambers. For instance, Republicans such as Rep. Rand Paul have criticized their Democrat counterparts over this issue.
In an interview, Rodney Hood, a federal financial regulator and former chair of the federal National Credit Union Administration, offered advice on how to steer through the state-federal conflict, which had made financial institutions reluctant to work with marijuana businesses, noting that cannabis legalization was a question of when and not if.
When cannabis is finally legalized at the federal level, industry companies such as Flora Growth Corp. (NASDAQ: FLGC) will have a bigger marketplace within which to operate with having to work through a complex mix of laws.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Flora Growth Corp. (NASDAQ: FLGC) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://cnw.fm/FLGC
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