32 Attorneys General Tell Congress to Pass SAFER Banking for Cannabis | Where to order Skittles Moonrock online

425,000 jobs in 2024,” they wrote. “These businesses have a sizable economic impact, which is only expected to grow. Industry experts project that combined U.S. annual sales of regulated cannabis could reach $34 billion by the end of 2025.”

Absent of federal legislation, there is a conflict between state-sanctioned cannabis programs and federal banking laws that make the cannabis industry too risky for many banks—especially big banks—to serve. Specifically, federal anti-money laundering laws prohibit depository institutions from handling money that comes directly from criminal activities, such as cannabis sales.

While most banks are state-chartered, every federally insured bank has a primary federal regulator, according to a January 2025 report from the Congressional Research Service.

“Generally, these regulators expect banks to avoid banking with clients that violate federal law,” according to the report. “One example is cannabis businesses. Cannabis is legal in several states, but is banned at the federal level. Thus, a bank chartered in a cannabis-legal state may be in a position to provide banking services to a company operating legally under state law, but it could potentially violate federal law. Thus, banks may choose not to bank with companies in industries that are legal only at the state level due to potential bank exposure to legal risk.”

U.S. lawmakers attempted to provide a legislative fix last Congress, when the Democratic-controlled Senate Banking Committee under former Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, passed the SAFER Banking Act in a 14-9 vote in September 2023. However, former Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., failed to call the legislation to a floor vote for 15 months, despite promising to do so and despite having at least 59 U.S. senators in likely support of the legislation.

RELATED: Where All 100 US Senators Stand on SAFER Banking Act

Now under Republican control, neither chamber has introduced the SAFER Banking Act or similar legislation this Congress. Specifically, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., a cannabis banking reform foe, now chairs the Senate Banking Committee. Majority Leader Thune also opposes the reform proposal.

While the U.S. House passed the SAFE Banking Act seven times under Democratic leadership between 2019 and 2022, the legislation hasn’t seen action under a Republican majority since 2023. Current House Speaker Johnson voted against the SAFE Banking Act in 2021.

Nonetheless, President Donald Trump signaled his support for cannabis banking reform during the campaign trail in September 2024.

As the cannabis industry continues to grow, a “considerable” public safety risk persists, the attorneys general wrote to lawmakers.

“For example, when the public is only allowed to conduct business in cash, employees and customers are at greater risk of violent crime in pursuit of that cash,” they wrote. “Allowing access to the nation’s regulated banking system is crucial to public safety and to ensuring that lawful businesses in our states have access to regulated banking services.”

The attorneys general said that the SAFER Banking Act or similar legislation would help ensure that state governments are able to properly collect tax revenues and conduct financial oversight.

“An effective safe harbor would bring billions of dollars into the banking sector, enabling law enforcement, federal, state and local tax agencies, and cannabis regulators in the states and territories to more effectively monitor cannabis businesses and their transactions,” they wrote. “Compliance with tax laws would be simpler and easier to enforce with the regulated tracking of funds in the banking system, resulting in higher tax revenues.”

They added that the SAFER Banking Act would respect state sovereignty and would not encourage legalization.