As our regular readers are aware, Senators Warren and Gardner introduced a bi-partisan bill in the Senate for the federal government: (1) to generally defer to state laws legalizing marijuana and (2) to effectively allow all banks to provide services to legal cannabis businesses in the same way that they treat other legal businesses (STATES Act, S. 3032). S. 3032 has been read twice and was referred to the Senate’s Judiciary Committee when it was introduced on June 7. An identical bill was introduced in the House (H.R. 6043), also on June 7, and was referred to the House’s Judiciary and Energy and Commerce Committees on the same day. No action has been taken on either bill since they were introduced.

Earlier this month, Congress continued to avoid providing bank access to state-legal cannabis businesses by voting against measures in appropriations bills that would have prohibited bank regulators from using federal funds to punish banks that provide bank services to state-legal cannabis businesses. This failure by Congress to allow cannabis business access to the banking system continues to cause serious business and safety problems for state-legal cannabis businesses.

With the midterm elections now coming into clear view, and with dramatic divisions in both houses of Congress, it appears unlikely — at the present time — that Congress will take any steps to solve this cannabis banking problem. It also remains unclear if, without Congressional action, the federal banking regulators will take any useful steps in the area, especially in light of the rescission of the Cole memo by Attorney General Sessions.

We will continue to follow and report on this, but unless an imaginative and scalable solution is found, the risks (including to public safety) and difficulties in dealing in an all-cash business is likely to be a significant hurdle for state-licensed  cannabis businesses.