Bipartisan lawmakers have reintroduced a bill to the House of Representatives that would provide a pathway for cannabis businesses to list on the US stock exchange, accessing the institutional capital they sorely need. 

The Capital Lending and Investment for Marijuana Businesses Act (CLIMB) would also prevent federal agencies from penalising companies from providing critical services to state-legal operators, including financial products, insurance, and debt or equity capital. 

It comes as the SAFER Banking bill, which many analysts believe would be more consequential for the industry than rescheduling, remains absent from the current Congress, after stalling in the previous legislative session despite passing the Senate Banking Committee in September 2023 with a 14–9 bipartisan vote. 

Saphira Galoob, CEO of US Cannabis Roundtable, said: “Right now, Canadian cannabis companies can ring the bell at U.S. stock markets and access American capital markets while domestic cannabis businesses are largely locked out of even the most basic financial services. 

“That’s not a level playing field. The CLIMB Act fixes this by ensuring American cannabis businesses, workers, and investors have the same opportunities and access to financial services as foreign competitors.”

What is in the bill?

Representatives Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) and Troy Carter (D-LA) reintroduced the bill (H.R. 7987) on March 18, 2026, marking the second time the two sponsors have brought the bill forward. 

The bill proposes two distinct mechanisms that will work in tandem to remove the long-maligned barriers to accessing capital and services for US-based cannabis operators. 

Firstly, it states that a federal agency cannot take any ‘adverse action’ against an individual solely because they provide ‘business assistance’ to a cannabis-related legitimate business.

This includes fundamental financial services such as banking and lending, insurance, debt or equity capital, and accounting services. 

It would also cover a far broader range of services like real estate, equipment, testing, consulting, and advertising, among others. 

Notably, it would also enable securities underwriting and public distribution, including exchange listing, across the entire financial markets chain. 

The other arm of the bill would amend Section 6 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the legislation that governs how national exchanges operate. 

This amendment would remove the federal legal liability that currently prevents NYSE, Nasdaq, and other exchanges from listing US cannabis companies. 

Under the current framework, an exchange that listed a cannabis business would risk violating the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), and this would make it plain that doing so would be unlawful. 

The same protection would extend to the full supporting infrastructure of public markets, broker-dealers, underwriters, clearing agencies, credit rating agencies, and transfer agents, all of which currently face the same liability exposure as the exchanges themselves. 

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CLIMB vs SAFER

The CLIMB Act will inevitably draw comparisons to the SAFER Banking Act, but it’s worth exploring the nuances between them and whether the passage of CLIMB would make SAFER redundant. 

The SAFER Banking Act would prevent federal regulators from punishing banks and credit unions for simply opening accounts or processing payments for cannabis-businesses. 

However, it would not have forced banks to take on cannabis clients and the associated compliance burden, including the obligation to file suspicious activity reports and monitor transactions, something legacy financial institutions would likely still have been cautious of doing. 

Meanwhile, the CLIMB Act would stop any federal agency from penalising anyone who provides services to a state-legal cannabis business, not just banks. It also opens the door to public markets that SAFER would not have. 

If CLIMB eventually passes, it would not render SAFER moot, as the latter targets internal rules that govern how banks actually operate. 

Crucially, SAFER would require the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to update its guidance requiring banks to file suspicious activity reports on cannabis transactions within 180 days, and direct regulators to produce clear guidance for banks serving cannabis businesses. 

Does it have a chance of passing?

As for whether the CLIMB Act is likely to become law, it’s again worth drawing comparisons to SAFER. 

Its predecessor, the SAFE Banking Act, passed the House seven times over six years and never once received a Senate floor vote. The SAFER Banking Act cleared the Senate Banking Committee with bipartisan support and then sat untouched for 15 months before dying at the end of the session.

The CLIMB Act enters an even more hostile political environment, having just a fraction of the sponsors at introduction that SAFER eventually had behind it. Furthermore, it has been referred to the House Financial Services Committee, where cannabis reform bills have reliably stalled. The Republican-controlled Senate, where Speaker Johnson has been reported as privately opposing even rescheduling, is again the key hurdle for this ambitious bill.