California joins push to let cannabis businesses use banks as part of coronavirus relief

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is joining a bipartisan group of 34 attorneys general in urging Congress to approve a coronavirus relief package that would let marijuana businesses use traditional banking services.

The Democrat-controlled House on Friday, May 15, approved the idea of granting banking access to cannabis businesses as part of the $3 trillion HEROES Act, which would provide the biggest package of programs yet aimed at buffering the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

Banking services are out of reach for the cannabis industry, even in states where recreational use of the plant has been approved, because marijuana is illegal under federal law.

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