President Joe Biden wants to keep blocking Washington, D.C. from implementing marijuana sales. But on Wednesday, leaders of a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee released a wide-ranging spending bill that would lift that ban, in addition to protecting banks that service state-legal cannabis businesses. Despite the president specifically maintaining a rider barring D.C. from using its tax dollars to legalize marijuana commerce in his budget proposal last month, the legislation from House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Subcommittee Chairman Mike Quigley (D-IL) would remove that barrier. The proposal, which covers annual funding for various federal agencies, also contains language that would protect banks from being penalized by federal regulators simply for working with cannabis companies that operate in accordance with state laws. Biden’s budget request did not weigh in on that issue, nor has he commented on standalone legislation that cleared the House for the fourth time this year to provide the same protections.
Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, 06/23/2021 11:20:00