The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee said no decision had been made yet on how a House-passed bill to help cannabis-based businesses get access to the banking system would advance in the Senate.
“I’m talking to Schumer. We’re not clear what we’re going to do there,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio), referring to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
The SAFE Banking Act, which would prohibit bank regulators from penalizing banks and credit unions that do business with cannabis-based businesses
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like marijuana dispensaries, passed the House overwhelmingly last week on a 321 to 101 vote.
Schumer has said he wants a broad bill that would remove the federal prohibition on cannabis and plans to work with Sen. Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, and Sen. Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who heads the Senate Finance Committee, on that.
Brown, who as chairman of the Banking Committee has jurisdiction over the House-passed bill, said it was unclear if it would be folded into the larger bill that Schumer has talked about.
“There is interest certainly from both parties. There is interest in sentencing reform as part of it. There is some interest in decriminalization generally, not legalization,” Brown said late Tuesday after a Senate vote.
Brown, asked if he still favored linking the banking bill with the easing of drug sentencing laws he blamed for disproportionately affecting minorities, as he’d proposed earlier in the year, appeared to signal some flexibility.
“I’m pretty open on it. It’s not something I’ve done a lot of work on yet. I know there’s committee interest in both sides,” he said.
Read More: No decision yet on whether to link cannabis-banking bill to other priorities,