The latest effort to let legal cannabis business open checking accounts and accept credit cards has failed, due to U.S. Senate opposition, leaving proponents to try to find another way to get the bill through Congress.
The Secure and Fair Enforcement, or SAFE, Banking Act, was excised from the National Defense Authorization Act, which will set federal defense policy through Sept. 30, 2023.
The provision was added by the U.S. House, but it never made it into the final bill because the Senate refused to go along. It’s the seventh time that the House passed SAFE Banking provisions, both as stand-alone measures and as amendments to unrelated legislation.