And when the House in July approved a package of six spending bills to fund the federal government beginning next month, lawmakers included a provision in the Financial Services and General Government appropriations measure to prevent the government from spending any money to penalize banks providing services to legal cannabis businesses.
Lawmakers also need to pass spending legislation to keep the government open past the end of the month. Congress is supposed to consider 12 separate spending bills but in recent years several, if not all, of them are folded into one massive omnibus measure. “The House and Senate have very few legislative days left before they break for the election,” said Khadijah Tribble, the new chief executive of the U.S. Cannabis Council. “The most likely scenario at this point is that Congress will pass a continuing resolution in September and then consider an omnibus package in lame duck.”
Those spending bills have given cannabis advocates an opportunity to affect government policy. For example, the legislation funding the Justice Department prevents the agency from spending any of that money to enforce the federal ban on marijuana in states that have legalized weed for medical purposes.
Biden could do this by just moving it off schedule 1.