Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday is among a coalition of 32 attorneys general that are urging Congress to pass the SAFER Banking Act of 2025.
In a letter to congressional leaders, Sunday and the coalition say the passage of the legislation that would provide legal clarity for banks and financial institutions to serve state-regulated cannabis businesses.
The letter emphasizes that current federal banking restrictions create unnecessary public safety risks by forcing legitimate cannabis businesses to operate primarily in cash. This makes employees and customers of cannabis businesses targets for violent crime. It also undermines 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 AGs point out 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 permit the sale and use of cannabis.
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. Further, they state that 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.
Joining 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.