Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) is desperately trying to save the SAFE Banking Act, a bill that would make it easier for state-licensed marijuana businesses to access financial services. But that bill would already have been enacted if Schumer had not blocked it last year, when he portrayed it as a threat to broader marijuana reform.
The House has approved cannabis banking reform more than half a dozen times, including an April 2021 vote in which the SAFE Banking Act attracted the support of 215 Democrats and 106 Republicans. But the bill has repeatedly foundered in the Senate, even though it also has bipartisan support in that chamber.
