House approves SAFE Banking Act for fourth time
Photo | Nathan Fiske
Bountiful Farms, which has a medical dispensary in Natick, won first place in the flower category at the Massachusetts Cultivator's Cup over Labor Day weekend.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday voted to approve the SAFE Banking Act of 2021, an effort to formally allow banks to do business with state-legal cannabis companies while cannabis remains illegal at the federal level.
The bill has been approved three separate times within the House, according to Reuters, making Monday’s 321-101 vote the fourth time the legislative body has given the bill a go-to.
If approved in the Senate, the bill would prohibit federal banking regulators from penalizing a bank from providing banking services to legal cannabis businesses, according to the bill’s summary. It would also effectively legalize income from legal cannabis business transactions and protect banks from penalties related to providing loans or other financial services to legally-operating businesses.
The bill would additionally prohibit federal banking agencies from requesting or ordering banks to terminate a customer without having a valid reason to do so, so long as that reason is not based on reputation risk, according to the bill’s summary. An example of a valid reason for terminating an account would be a threat to national security or relationships to terrorism.
“Most Americans live in states where some form of cannabis is legal - but because of outdated federal law, cannabis-related businesses are forced to operate in cash,” Rep. Jim McGovern tweeted on Monday, indicating his support and yes vote for the would-be legislation.
It was not immediately clear what the bill’s fate would be in the Senate.
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