January 16, 2025
If U.S. Rep. Dina Titus has her way, the 119th Congress will finally pass cannabis banking reform as well as bills easing military veterans’ access to medical marijuana and researchers’ abilities to study the drug.
If all that sounds familiar – or like a crass joke, in the weeks before Groundhog Day – it should.
Those popular and long-sought-after wins are also what the Nevada Democrat and newly minted co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus’ immediate predecessors chased after, Titus acknowledged during an interview with MJBizDaily.
Titus, whose new caucus co-chair is fellow Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, spoke with MJBizDaily only days after the newly seated Congress voted to certify the November presidential election that will allow Donald Trump return to the presidency on Jan. 20.
With new members sworn in just after the new year, and with most attention focused on the incoming president and welcoming new members to Washington, D.C., bill introductions – and the necessary wrangling to get them passed – will come later.
Familiar Congressional marijuana priorities
That said, Titus expects members of the U.S. House of Representatives to reintroduce in the coming months:
The SAFER Banking Act, which has been “introduced and passed by the House a number of times” under Democratic leadership, she noted.
The Veterans Equal Access Act, with more ambitious bills ensuring veterans’ access to cannabis via the Veterans Administration system to potentially follow.
The Higher Education Marijuana Research Act, which specifically allows colleges and universities to obtain cannabis for research purposes if allowed by the state or tribal government in which they are located.
That roll call of relatively modest bills – and the notable absence, for now, of more ambitious legislation such as nationwide legalization – is yet another reminder of how far the federal government continues to lag behind the states.
In its history, Congress has managed to pass only one stand-alone cannabis bill: the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act, which passed a Democratic-controlled House in 2022 amid criticism that it did not go far enough.
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Since then, there’s been very little progress.
The Senate called a banking reform bill for a committee hearing in September 2023, but it went no farther.
During her interview with MJBizDaily, Titus struck a “states’ rights” tone, noting Nevada’s implementation of laws legalizing consumption lounges in tourist mecca Las Vegas, which Titus represents on Capitol Hill.
“I support state regulation, but there are some areas where the federal government can be involved,” she said.
“We need to get some things done here for the federal government to catch up” to the states.
Slight changes to Capitol Hill landscape
Former U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, and Dana Rohrabacher, R-California, formed the Congressional Cannabis Caucus in 2016 to help pass federal marijuana reform laws.
Titus and Omar take over as Cannabis Caucus co-chairs from Blumenauer and former Rep. Barbara Lee, D-California.
They’ll still enjoy Republican support from the likes of:
Ohio Rep. Dave Joyce, who has repeatedly co-sponsored and marshalled conservative support of banking reform.
Florida Rep. Brian Mast, a longtime advocate for cannabis access for veterans through the VA.
Other Congressional Republicans, including far-right Trump stalwarts such as South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace and Rep. Greg Steube of Florida, also introduced or co-sponsored marijuana reform bills.
Reforming the Farm Bill to close a loophole that allows hemp-derived THC in products is also on these bipartisan lawmakers’ agendas, Titus said.
Republican cannabis control
Though protections from federal interference for financial institutions that do business with state-regulated marijuana businesses passed the House seven previous times, the SAFER Banking Act did not receive even a committee hearing under Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Many cannabis interests are vocally disappointed with former Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a SAFER Banking sponsor who nevertheless declined to call the bill for a full floor vote because there was inadequate Republican support to pass a 60-vote threshold necessary under filibuster rules.
But the outlook for the Senate under Republican Leader John Thune of South Dakota isn’t any better.
“Getting out of the House is always easier than the Senate, but there are members in the Senate now who were supportive on the House side before,” Titus said.
That includes seemingly unlikely – or limited – supporters such as new U.S. Sen. Jim Banks, R-Indiana, who co-sponsored banking reform while serving in the House even though his home state has not approved any type of regulated marijuana market.
Conventional wisdom has held that new states with recreational marijuana mean new supporters in Congress.
Though adult-use sales began in Ohio in August, voters in that state elected Bernie Moreno to the Senate in November, even though the Republican is a political newcomer without an established record on cannabis.
Moreno will represent Ohio in the Senate with whomever Republican Gov. Mike DeWine appoints to serve out the rest of JD Vance’s term once Vance is sworn in as vice president.
DeWine’s choice might be someone whom Joyce can sell on banking reform.
Trump ‘may change’ marijuana outlook
Trump, “who was not favorable” toward marijuana reform during his first term, expressed support for both the rescheduling process as well as an adult-use legalization measure in Florida last fall, Titus noted.
Though the Trump endorsement didn’t push Amendment 3 over the line in Florida – in part because 60% support is needed to pass a constitutional amendment in that state – and the Republican House and Senate leadership in Congress are known legalization skeptics, the president-elect’s word “may change some things,” Titus predicted.
Titus also opened the door for Congress to take action if the push to reclassify marijuana as a less-harmful substance under federal law stalls out or yields an unwelcome result.
Marijuana rescheduling, launched in October 2022 by President Joe Biden, is now stuck in limbo after a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration administrative law judge paused the process on Mondayy.
“That’s the problem is the uncertainty: One administration does this, one does that, DEA says, ‘Yeah, we’re going to do it,’ but they take too long,” she said.
“That’s where Congress can be engaged: to establish what that certainty is by pushing for descheduling.”
But Titus isn’t banking on any help from the White House.
“I have no sense about anything he does,” she said. “He changes from one tweet to the next.
“I wouldn’t bet on it – and I take the odds in Las Vegas.”
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