BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Chairman, I say to my friend, Dr. Fleming, and to the chairman of the committee that the guidance has already been implemented--the guidance from the Justice Department, the guidance from the Treasury Department to banks and to the regulators how to report activity around a marijuana business.
Mr. Chairman, there are now 22 States that allow for medical marijuana. There are two States that have legalized it for all adult purposes. We are at 24 States, and by the end of this year, we will be at about 30 States.
What is happening is because banks may not be following--they are doing what Dr. Fleming would like to see. They are operating just in cash, which creates its own potential for crime, robbery, assault and battery. You cannot track the money. There is skimming and tax evasion. So the guidance by the Justice Department and the guidance by the Treasury Department is to bring this out into the open.
Mr. Chairman, I will insert in the Record yesterday's article in USA Today concerning the security issues dealing with all cash accounts, and the Treasury officials there say:
Our goal is to promote financial transparency and make sure law enforcement receives the reporting from financial institutions that it needs to police this activity.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Chairman, to my friend from Florida, I agree, except that the world has moved, and businesses that are legal in these vast array of States should be able to operate in a businesslike fashion.
They should be able to have checking accounts and credit cards and payroll accounts, instead of operating solely in cash that invites robberies, invites assault and batteries, invites tax evasion.
The system--the banking system should be able to provide for that, instead of just operating in a cash setting. So we need to limit and avoid the crime that the cash invites, and we need to allow these businesses to operate in a businesslike fashion.
The States and the people of those States have chosen to move forward. We should not, through the banking system, try to stop that and then create crime in its wake.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT