Historic House Vote to Give Legal Pot Businesses Banking Access

Legal pot businesses, as are currently allowed to operate in 33 states, came a giant step closer to gaining access to the banking industry on Wednesday, Reuters reported, when the United States House of Representatives took a historic vote that included 91 of the 198 House Republican joining almost every Democrat to support a measure that would allow banks to legally handle funds from legitimate cannabis businesses—even though the drug remains illegal at the federal level. But legal pot growers and sellers should not celebrate too much, at least not yet. The bill must now pass the U.S. Senate which is controlled by Republicans and despite the heavily—though not entirely—bipartisan nature of the House vote, may be more wary of giving its seal of approval to a bill that could be seen as a step toward legalizing cannabis nationwide. But according to a Politico report, if the bill or one like it were to pass the Senate, Donald Trump is not expected to veto the measure. His firing last year of then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a near-fanatical opponent of marijuana legalization, is seen as “turning point” in softening Trump’s resistance to pot-friendly legislation. Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a staunch Trump backer, was among the 91 Republicans voting in favor of the bill, which had been in the House awaiting a vote for six years, with movement finally happening after Democrats won back control of the lower chamber in the 2018 midterm elections. Though federal lawmakers now appear to be heading toward allowing access to the banking system for legal pot businesses, Congress appears to be headed in the other direction when it comes to the porn business. In April of 2018, the House overwhelmingly passed the End Banking for Human Traffickers Act—a measure that saw only two House members cast “no” votes. The bill follows the lead of the FOSTA/SESTA bill in targeting sex-related businesses, but this time hitting them for their financial activities rather than their online presence.  But the bill has remained stalled for the last year-and-a-half in the Senate Banking Commitee, with no date set for when it might move forward. Photo By Chuck Grimmett / Wikimedia Commons