Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Ms. LEE of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1996, the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act, or the SAFE Banking Act, of which I am an original cosponsor. I want to thank my friend Congressman Perlmutter as well as Chairwoman Waters and Chairman Nadler for their leadership on this issue.

This bill creates protections for financial institutions to be able to provide financial services to state-legal cannabis businesses and ancillary businesses. This would allow these businesses to access the banking system instead of relying on cash transactions.

Marijuana is currently legal in 36 states, 4 territories and the District of Columbia for medicinal or recreational use. This is an important issue as financial institutions prohibit dealing with cannabis businesses because of its current Schedule I, federal status. We need to ensure that these legitimate businesses have access to banking services as more states have medicinal and adult use cannabis programs. Many of these businesses are operating as cash only, which has created many issues for business owners and employees and has led to safety concerns for our communities.

I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues on this and other marijuana related issues as they relate to racial and economic inequality. The SAFE Banking Act helps provide a solution to this financial issue, but we must not forget the larger systemic injustice of cannabis prohibition, which has disproportionately impacted Black and brown communities through the war on drugs. We must work together to end federal cannabis prohibition and to pass the MORE Act.

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