Here’s something to look forward to next year:
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) signaled on Thursday that marijuana banking reform might be on hold until the next Congress in 2023, rather than passed during the lame duck session as advocates and stakeholders had hoped. However, Brown’s office told Marijuana Moment that the senator still would like to see the reform included in omnibus appropriations legislation this year so long as it contains additional provisions that he supports.
Asked about the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, the senator told Punchbowl News’s Brendan Pederson on Thursday that he expects to “take it up and get it through” in 2023, adding that “there’s interest in the Republican House.”
Brown also expressed interest in the expanded SAFE Plus bill that Senate leadership has been finalizing because it’s expected to go beyond simple banking reform and also contain other provisions dealing with expungements and more.
The new 2023 comments seemed to depart from what Brown said in an interview that aired on Monday, with the senator insisting that a deal with banking included “absolutely could still happen,” and lawmakers were “this close to a deal,” placing his thumb and index fingers about an inch apart.
But while the new remarks raised some initial concerns for advocates and stakeholders, Brown’s office sent a clarifying statement to Marijuana Moment on Thursday.
“Senator Brown would support SAFE Plus in the omnibus bill,” they said. “SAFE Plus includes provisions Senator Brown supports, such as clarity for [community development financial institutions] and for cannabis workers regarding mortgages.”
There has been past bipartisan support regarding marijuana policy so the pressure is going to be on the incoming small House Republican majority to make this happen.
Meanwhile, Brown has also been busy cracking down on a huge fraud you might’ve been reading about in the news lately:
U.S. lawmakers don't need to reinvent the wheel as they weigh legislation after the blowup of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX crypto empire, the head of the Senate Banking Committee said.
The panel's hearing on Wednesday, Dec. 14, is the second this week by Congress to scrutinize the fallout of FTX's bankruptcy. The company collapsed in November, sending shock waves across the industry and fanning criticism of Washington's weak oversight. Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday after the US government filed criminal charges amid multiple probes into his possible misconduct.
"If we are going to learn from FTX's meltdown, we must look closely at the risks from conflicts at crypto platforms that combine multiple functions," said Sherrod Brown, the committee's chairman. "It means thinking about the kinds of disclosure that consumers and investors really need to understand how a token or crypto platform works."
Brown said in remarks before the hearing that lawmakers can look at existing banking and securities laws for time-tested approaches as a way of overseeing crypto businesses.
Senator Brown is running for re-election in 2024 and he is going to be a top target for the GOP:
With the victory of J.D. Vance over Mr. Ryan fresh in mind — a Republican triumph in broadly disappointing midterms for the party — Ohio Republicans this week were sharpening knives in anticipation of taking on Senator Sherrod Brown, the Democrat whose long-term credibility with blue-collar voters was a template for Mr. Ryan.
At the same time, some Republicans cautioned that Mr. Brown would be a more formidable opponent. One strategist, Jai Chabria, who was Mr. Vance’s chief campaign adviser, called Mr. Ryan “the zero-calorie Sherrod Brown.”
Mr. Brown said last week that he planned to seek a fourth term in 2024, though his comments were short of an announcement. If he follows through, his survival as a gruff-voiced champion of what he calls “the dignity of work” will be acutely tested.
“The state dynamics have changed,” said Bob Paduchik, the chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, at a postelection autopsy before the state Chamber of Commerce. “The Ohio Republican Party is a working-class, conservative party. Sherrod has portrayed himself as a working-class Democrat, and there just aren’t many of those left around in Ohio.”
Mr. Brown, through a spokesman, declined to comment. His top political adviser, Justin Barasky, who also worked on Mr. Ryan’s race, acknowledged that “the national Democratic Party brand has suffered significantly with working-class voters,” including Black and Hispanic voters. But Mr. Barasky said that Ohio had not slipped entirely from Democrats’ grasp, like some other formerly competitive Midwest states.
“Ohio is not going the way of Missouri and Iowa, that’s why we have a Democratic senator, and they don’t,” he said. “But we’re not Pennsylvania anymore, and we’re not Wisconsin and we’re not Michigan.”
“Yes, Tim lost, and the governor’s race was a blowout, so it’s very simple to say, ‘Oh, man, Sherrod is in big trouble,’” he added. Yet, a detailed look at the results, he said, “leads you to believe Sherrod is in a relatively strong position.” He cited Mr. Ryan’s higher share of votes in most counties that Joseph R. Biden Jr. won in 2020, among other factors.