Congress to Pass SAFER Banking Act to Improve Public Safety and Enable Better Tax Collection and Regulatory Oversight
HARRISBURG – Attorney General Dave Sunday today joined a bipartisan coalition of 32 attorneys general in calling on Congress to pass the SAFER Banking Act of 2025. The coalition submitted a letter to congressional leaders urging passage of legislation that would provide legal clarity for banks and financial institutions to serve state-regulated cannabis businesses, addressing critical public safety concerns while improving states’ ability to collect taxes and conduct regulatory oversight.
The letter emphasizes that current federal banking restrictions create unnecessary public safety risks by forcing legitimate cannabis businesses to operate primarily in cash. This cash-intensive environment makes employees and customers targets for violent crime while undermining states’ ability to effectively regulate and tax these industries.
Currently, 39 states, three territories, and the District of Columbia permit medical cannabis use, while 24 states, two territories, and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use cannabis.
The attorneys general note that 21 states currently collect cannabis tax revenues,
but many state agencies have been turned away by financial institutions when attempting to deposit cannabis-related payments.
The coalition emphasizes that the SAFER Banking Act would not encourage cannabis legalization in states that have chosen not to permit it, nor would it change cannabis’s federal legal status. Instead, the legislation creates a targeted safe harbor allowing depository institutions to provide financial services to covered businesses in states that have implemented laws and regulations ensuring accountability in the cannabis industry.
The letter argues that bringing cannabis commerce into the regulated banking system would enable law enforcement; federal, state, and local tax agencies; and cannabis regulators to more effectively monitor cannabis businesses and their transactions. Compliance with tax laws would be simpler and easier to enforce with regulated tracking of funds in the banking system, resulting in higher tax revenues.
The coalition stresses that the legislation is common-sense, bipartisan, and respects both state sovereignty and the current federal status of cannabis. The SAFER Banking Act addresses specific public policy challenges facing states due to federal prohibition on banking cannabis-related funds while moving cash from legal cannabis businesses into the highly regulated banking system, where it will be more transparent to state regulators and law enforcement.
The attorneys general conclude that the legislation will beneficially impact the safety of Americans who live in states where cannabis has been legalized, while enabling economic growth and stability in their respective jurisdictions.
Joining Attorney General Sunday in filing the letter are the attorneys general of Maryland, Ohio, Georgia, the District of Columbia, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, California, Colorado,
Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Northern Mariana Islands, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, U.S. Virgin Islands, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia.
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