The political climate is divisive as ever as the Senate Minority Leader ramped up verbal attacks directed at cannabis banking reform.
On February 7, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) slammed the Democrat majority in the House for voting to include the SAFE Banking Act in a broad spending bill. McConnell called the SAFE Banking Act, the provision that allows for cannabis banking, a “poison pill.”
On February 4, the majority of the members in the House of Representatives voted to approve The America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology, and Economic Strength Act of 2022 (America COMPETES Act), which includes the provisions of the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act.
The COMPETES Act is intended, in part, to help the U.S. compete with China—which in 2021 surpassed the US as the world’s richest nation, thanks to semiconductor manufacturing and education.
This occasion marks the sixth time that the House advanced the SAFE Banking Act to the Senate either as an amendment or as a stand-alone bill. The Act was introduced as an amendment by the bill’s sponsor, Representative Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), to allow banks and other financial institutions to cater to state-legal cannabis businesses.
“China has been steadily building up its military and economic might, and the Democrats’ answer is to help Americans get high,” McConnell said in a condescending tone, while giving remarks today on the Senate floor concerning China.
“Democrats plan to combat [opioid overdoses] is more marijuana on the side,” he said on the Senate floor. “Needless to say, this is not a winning strategy for global competition between great powers.”
“Any Democrats hoping to yank the