State electeds ask congressional leaders to pass SAFE Banking Act

||| FROM THE OFFICE OF GOVERNOR JAY INSLEE |||

In case you missed it: On Monday, Gov. Jay Inslee, Lt. Gov. Denny Heck, Attorney General Bob Ferguson, and Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti sent a letter to the House and Senate leaders encouraging passage of the Secure And Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act of 2022.

The proposed federal law would expand cashless payment options for retail cannabis stores, which are increasingly becoming targets for armed robberies.

The letter reads, in part:

“…we lack authority to provide one critical aspect needed to ensure the security of our cannabis industry – access to federally-insured banking services and electronic payment processing – namely credit and debit cards. This has resulted in a limited number of financial service companies available to cannabis businesses. While we are making every effort to ensure our cannabis businesses are aware of these services, this restriction has become a catalyst for a very real public safety crisis in the state of Washington. Many of our cannabis businesses still rely largely on cash transactions and have increasingly become targets for armed robbers. In the first two months of 2022, reports indicate that there have been more than 50 armed robberies of state-licensed cannabis retail stores. This surpasses the number of robberies in all of 2020 or 2021.

“Videos of armed takeover-style robberies at retail stores are common in the news cycle. Each news story effectively educates more criminals about the cash-intensive nature of the industry, serving to add fuel to this fire. Not only have these robberies become more frequent, they have also become more violent. In March, an employee was shot dead. Earlier in the year, an employee was shot six times but survived. Others have been wounded, beaten, and threatened with automatic weapons. It is not hyperbole to call this a matter of life and death. The SAFE Banking Act could address this specific and urgent need by allowing cannabis retailers to use cashless payment options, such as credit and debit cards.”

Read the full letter here.

Additional background:

Inslee and Ferguson recently wrote an op-ed calling for immediate action to pass the SAFE Banking Act. Pellicciotti has also been actively advocating for passage of the bill.

In April 2017, Inslee and the governors of Oregon, Colorado and Alaska sent a letter to then- U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.