Banks can now serve legal cannabis businesses without federal punishment
S. 4942 — SAFE Banking Act of 2026 · Filed by Jeff Merkley (D-OR) · 7 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 24, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill allows banks and financial institutions to serve state-legal marijuana and hemp businesses without federal penalty. It creates a safe harbor protecting banks from regulatory action, account termination, or forfeiture solely for providing banking services to state-sanctioned cannabis operations. It also allows mortgage lenders to count cannabis business income as legitimate income for home loans, and requires federal banking regulators to issue guidance clarifying how to serve these businesses while still reporting suspicious activity.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to remove federal banking barriers for state-legal cannabis and hemp businesses by creating safe harbors and liability protections. It is straightforward legislation addressing a specific industry's access to financial services.
What the text implies
- Banks may face pressure to serve cannabis businesses to avoid accusations of discrimination, potentially increasing their compliance burden and reputational risk in conservative jurisdictions.
- The bill does not resolve the Schedule I status of cannabis under federal law—it only protects banks from regulatory action. Cannabis remains federally illegal, creating ongoing legal ambiguity.
- Mortgage lenders accepting cannabis income may face scrutiny from secondary market purchasers (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac) or federal agencies, despite the bill's liability protections.
- The requirement for banks to file suspicious activity reports on cannabis businesses (Section 6) may create a chilling effect on service provision despite the safe harbor, as compliance costs remain high.
- Small and minority-owned cannabis businesses may still face barriers to banking access due to high compliance costs and risk aversion, despite the legal safe harbor.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens and small business owners in states with legal cannabis benefit from access to banking services, lower costs, and the ability to obtain mortgages based on cannabis income. The bill reduces financial exclusion and criminal risk for a lawful industry. However, the benefit is narrowly concentrated in cannabis-legal states and does not affect citizens in prohibition states.
Who stands to gain
- depository institutions (banks and credit unions)
- mortgage lenders and servicers
- cannabis retailers and producers
- hemp-derived CBD product manufacturers
- insurance companies
Named in the bill
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Federal Reserve System, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Agriculture, Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), State-sanctioned marijuana businesses — and 2 more
Where it stands
7 cosponsors: 4 Republicans, 3 Democrats.
- Jun 24, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jun 24, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
7 lobbying clients named this bill on 8 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $15,379,900 in lobbying spend. A filing names 12 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 86% of bills with at least one filing.
Jeff Merkley, the sponsor, reported $514,925 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Association of Realtors — $14,580,000 on 1 filing
- Reinsurance Assn of America — $710,000 on 2 filings
- Columbia University — $50,000 on 1 filing
- Knowledge Alliance — $20,000 on 1 filing
- National Cannabis Industry Association — $10,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 23, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the full bill text on Jul 9, 2026; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 23, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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