Mitch McConnell slams Dems for plan to include cannabis banking reform in defense bill

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Mitch McConnell slams Dems for plan to include cannabis banking reform in defense bill

Senate Minority LeaderMitch McConnell R-KY lashed out at Democrats on Tuesday for their plan to include cannabis banking reform and what he referred to as other pet priorities in a large-scale defense bill, reported The Hill.

McConnell called for Senators Nancy Pelosi D-Calif. and Charles Schumer D-N.Y. to strip the pot-related language from the defense bill.

House and Senate Democrats are still obstructing efforts to close out the NDAA by trying to jam in items with no relationship whatsoever to defense, McConnell said on the Senate floor, referring to the National Defense Authorization Act. My colleagues across the aisle need to cut their unrelated hostage-taking and put a bipartisan NDAA on the floor. The hope was for the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act of 2021 SAFE Banking Act expungements and other marijuana reform legislation to pass on Monday as part of the NDAA and end up on President Biden's desk during this lame-duck session. McConnell said the Dems should have used their majorities to move that legislation on a standalone basis outside of the defense bill if they wanted to enact it.

House and Senate Democrats are still obstructing efforts to close out the NDAA by trying to jam in items with no relationship whatsoever to defense. We are talking about a grab bag of miscellaneous pet priorities that make our financial system more sympathetic to illegal drugs or the phony, partisan permitting reform and name-only language that sounded like it won't be passed by the Senate earlier this year, McConnell said.

If Democrats wanted these controversial items so badly, they had two years to move them across the floor, he said. They could have scheduled those matters for votes this week. We are not doing more mid-level nominations, while Democrats threaten to take our Armed Forces hostage over those extraneous matters. Some believe that cannabis reforms could still make it into NDAA or get help via omnibus appropriations legislation or as standalone, before the end of the year, but with McConnell up in arms over this, it could be challenging.