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Sen. Rosen pushes for cannabis industry access to SBA services.
U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, who is on the Senate’s Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, has for years used her position to advocate for the cannabis industry.
Her latest effort on this front is a letter that she and nine other Senators wrote to the leadership of the Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.
As the Subcommittee considers appropriations legislation, Rosen’s letter asks that it “include bill language prohibiting the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) from denying loan applications for the 7(a) Loan Guarantee Program, Disaster Assistance Program, Microloan Program, and 504/Certified Development Company Loan Program to legally operating cannabis small businesses in states that have legalized cannabis sale and use.”
Further, the letter asks that the Subcommittee “include bill language prohibiting SBA from excluding such state-legal cannabis businesses from participating in or benefiting from SBA’s entrepreneurial development programs.”
This letter is largely symbolic, as the SBA is a federal agency and federal agencies are beholden to federal law, which prohibits cannabis.
You can read the full letter here.
Banking language tucked into House spending bill.
A subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee marked up a big spending bill today. The text of the bill was released yesterday, and it includes some language on cannabis banking.
Section 134 of the FY 2025 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill reads:
“None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to penalize a financial institution solely because the institution provides financial services to an entity that is a manufacturer, a producer, or a person that participates in any business or organized activity that involves handling hemp, hemp-derived cannabinoid products, other hemp-derived cannabinoid products, marijuana, marijuana products, or marijuana proceeds, and engages in such activity pursuant to a law established by a State, political subdivision of a State, or Indian Tribe.”
+ Some context: U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce is the chair of this subcommittee, the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee. Joyce is a lead sponsor of the SAFE Banking Act, a much more robust cannabis banking effort in Congress. So, the short-term fate of this language looks promising. However, this is a major spending bill that has a long way to go, so at this point, Section 134 is more of a conversation starter.
+ More: Cannabis banking legislation hasn’t moved much in the past year, but you can catch up on Cannabis Wire’s coverage here.
Another symbolic win in Congress, this time for veterans.
Also yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted an amendment to the FY 2025 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies appropriations bill that “ensures veterans can participate in state-approved medical marijuana programs,” according to a House summary of the amendment,” by lifting “the current directive that prevents VA Medical Facility staff from recommending, making referrals, or completing forms and registering Veterans for participation in state-approved marijuana programs.”
You can read the full amendment text here.
+ Context: Why do we keep calling these developments symbolic? Because, as with banking, or the SBA – and really anything else involving the federal government – it’s unlikely that the VA’s relationship to cannabis will change until the federal approach changes more broadly.