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Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act of 2019

Floor Speech

Date: Sept. 25, 2019
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Finance and Banking Marijuana

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Mr. MEEKS. Madam Speaker, there has been a rapid and dramatic shift in the legal treatment of cannabis, led by voters at the local and State levels.

Nearly every American now lives in a State where cannabis has been decriminalized to some extent and legal business activities permitted to varying degrees, including in my home State of New York. But Federal drug laws and bank regulations have not evolved to reflect this new reality. We need clear, harmonized laws, which the SAFE Banking Act provides.

Without passage of this bill, the legal cannabis industry is forced to operate mostly in cash, depriving law enforcement of important financial data and creating avoidable security risks for companies and their employees.

With the passage of this bill, entrepreneurs, employees, and financial institutions operating legally within the bounds of State and local laws will no longer bear the burden of a punitive Tax Code, high compliance hurdles, the lack of all basic financial services, and significant security risks.

I am proud of the work Mr. Perlmutter has done on this bill, and I compliment him.

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