WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Banking Committee, joined Ryan Nobles on NBC’s Meet the Press NOW to discuss the SAFER Banking Act, a product of bipartisan negotiation which will secure protections for legal industries such as energy companies, gun manufacturers, and state-sanctioned marijuana companies so they have access to banking services. The legislation, which passed the Senate Banking Committee today with a vote of 14 to 9, is strongly supported by the banking industry and community banks across North Dakota.
Senator Cramer also addressed passing a continuing resolution (CR) to avoid a government shutdown. Excerpts and video below.
On Passing a CR and Separating Ukraine Funding:
“I think we need to simplify [the Senate bill] quite honestly. I think the cleaner the better. I think to help Speaker McCarthy have the best leverage he could have with a ‘Raucous Caucus’ and Democrats to pass a clean CR. That's my goal. That's not the bill Senator Schumer has put together, but hopefully we can get to that point. We can pass something in the Senate. I think the bigger the margin, the better for Kevin [McCarthy].
Ryan Nobles: “Are you suggesting that any sort of supplemental funding for Ukraine be separate from the conversations about government funding in general?”
“I think we owe that to Ukraine, and I think we owe that to our voters, and to our taxpayers and to our citizens. Ukraine, while it’s largely supported, it's not universally supported. I think a discussion about Ukraine funding needs to be done in committee. It needs to be done in a wide open, transparent process. I think it only adds to people's suspicions if we stuff $6 billion in Ukraine aid into a continuing resolution. I'd likely would vote against it with the Ukraine support in it, as would the House of Representatives. What I want is something that can pass the Senate and at least has a fighting chance in a divided House. […] I think people are annoyed and they should be. It’s disfunction at its worst.”
On the SAFER Banking Act:
“I think we negotiated a pretty fragile balance here that will have momentum to get 60 votes in the Senate. I think it’ll do well, if not better on the floor than it did in the committee. The House probably would want to do something different with it. I'm quite confident they will. […] Let's get two bills and put them together and negotiate the details, but I'm confident that we can get it done this Congress. […] I think this bill restricts the government’s oversight, in some respects. It doesn't restrict their oversight so much as the way they can enforce certain things. For example, while we allow safe banking of cannabis, state by state depending on the legalization in particular states, we also protect other industries such as fossil fuels, firearms, industry, munitions, other out of favor industries from bank over regulation, particularly from the regulators themselves that cannot use reputational risk as a dispositive objection.”
“I’m not a fan of cannabis legalization. I oppose it vehemently, but I think the more you oppose cannabis legalization the more you should want SAFE Banking. If you say ‘I don’t like this industry…but it should be a cash only industry.’ That makes it worse. Having the regulated banking industry doing the financing, handling the checking accounts and credit cards really put parameters around the industry.”