-: Our next speaker is our first congressional speaker who
serves the great state of Montana in the US Senate.
Senator Steve Daines is a member
of the Republican Leadership Team as chair
of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
He's also a member on the Senate Banking Committee.
And in that role he has significant influence
over banking policy debates in Congress.
More importantly for this audience,
he's also the lead Republican sponsor of the SAFE Act.
This bipartisan legislation would give bankers
the legal certainty and clarity they need
to provide banking services
to state-sanctioned cannabis businesses.
Senator Daines is a man on the move
and today he is literally joining us from the road.
Senator, thank you so much for taking time to participate
at ABA's Washington Summit, and welcome.
So before
-: Good morning.
So for those who caught my panel with Rob earlier,
he mentioned what we refer to as a walk-in talk.
So this is when you have a meeting
with a member of Congress and votes are called,
and the next thing you know,
you're doing your meeting in the hallway.
This is the Zoom version
of a walk-in talk as Senator Daines is obviously
on the road and moving, serving his constituents.
Senator, thank you so much for taking the time to be here
with 2,000 of your favorite bankers across the country.
It is great to see you.
So as you might have anticipated,
we've been hearing a lot
about the state of the banking industry.
We just heard from Treasury Secretary, Yellen,
and we know that both the House Financial Services Committee
and the Senate Banking Committee are planning
to have hearings related to two recent bank failures.
I'm particularly interested in hearing
from the federal regulators on these two bank failures.
So recognizing that tomorrow,
all of these bankers will have the opportunity
to hear both from Chairman Brown,
Ranking Member Scott of Senate Banking,
Chairman McHenry and Ranking Member Waters
of the House Financial Services Committee.
You're a member on senate banking,
so I'm curious, to kick us off,
can you share your perspective?
What are you most interested in hearing about
at these oversight hearings?
-: Yeah, well I spent 28 years
in the private sector before coming to Capitol Hill.
I've had banking relationship all my life.
My Dad is driven to bank support.
When I was growing up,
I think first and foremost,
I wanna see a timeline
of exactly what happened
and hear from the key players.
I want to hear from the Fed.
I want to hear from the regulator
around who is responsible
for catching this
and clearly who did not.
If you look at what happened in SBC, you look
at the rapid increase
in deposits that virtually triple
over a very short period of time.
I wanna understand exactly the risk assessment
that management was undertaking and make sure
that we get all the facts about what happened.
So that hearing next week,
the Chairman Henry's very important
on the Senate side,
I'll defer to Chairman Brown,
ranking member Tim Scott
and I hope and expect we that we reach
the exact same thing
in short order over here in Senate.
Now,
I will say this
there's a lot of cocking heads out there
who are saying the solution
is more regulation.
And I strongly disagree. (audience applause)
I think it's pretty clear
that Senate Bill 2155
from 2018 would help roll
back some of those overreaching regulations of Dodd Frank.
And by the way,
that passed the Senate
with 67 votes, strong bipartisan support.
This was not the cause of this failure.
And in fact
it's done a lot to create more worry
amongst many of our banks when they see
a call from some members
of Congress to put more regulations in place.
We rolled back those regulations.
It's done a lot of good
especially for our smaller and mid-size banks
our rural banks like the ones back in Montana.
So I worry that the actions
by administration to date
are gonna leave solvent banks
on the hook for the failures of regulators, for the failures
of management, for the failure of these banks.
So I think the most recent call to add new penalty
and regulations on the private sector
are very misguided.
Commentator: Thank you.
Thank you for that perspective.
And I think there will be, I would imagine many hearings
on this topic as I know folks in the Senate are interested
in hearing from the state regulators
the federal regulators, the leadership of this bank
and really examining and getting
to the bottom of what happened with these two institutions.
So we appreciate hearing that perspective
from you and getting a taste of some
of the things that you are going to be thinking
about going into that hearing.
I wanna transition now into safe banking and
of course have to thank you for your leadership
as our lead Republican on this important piece
of legislation which would create a safe harbor
for our members to bank the cannabis industry
and ancillary businesses in states where cannabis is legal.
Can you share a little bit about the dynamics in the Senate
around consideration of the Safe Act and do you think
that there is a possibility that this bill might move
through regular order in the Senate?
Something which as you know, we haven't seen
we've been hopeful about that.
We didn't see it last Congress
what is the current state of play?
-: Yeah, well I do think there's a chance we can move this
to regular order this year.
This bill's been out there a long time past the house.
I think with each passing year there's a greater number
of people who understand
that the problem
of forcing legitimate and legal businesses
to operate in all cash is only getting worse.
We need to be very clear.
This is a public safety bill
and the longer we go
without addressing this issue,
the worst the situation on the ground becomes.
We're seeing violent crime
we're seeing murders of employees, security guard
as these businesses continue to rapidly expand.
So I think this is really time sensitive.
I'd like to see that get addressed
get it passed before anybody else gets hurt.
We have a lot of support from law enforcement
and attorney generals across the country.
-: Well, we appreciate everything
you've been doing on the bill.
I know it had 43 co-sponsors last Congress.
Do you think there are opportunities for you
to gain more co-sponsors in the Senate this cycle?
Daines: I do, and I think, or I need your help.
I think this is a lot about educating folks on an issue.
This is not about whether you support legalization or not.
This is not some kind of proxy vote
for endorsing federal legalization marijuana.
It's totally unrelated to that question.
This is about solving a problem that's facing our
financial service businesses, our legal cannabis businesses
and many other businesses that transact with
plumbers, brokers, electricians who are really unsure
whether they can provide services
without running afoul of the law.
So setting aside cannabis
this is about safe banking, it's about public safety.
That's the message we have to convey
to members on Capitol Hill.
Commentator: And so, as a follow up
you mentioned you could use our help.
Can you be specific
about what the bankers that are listening
into this conversation, what steps can they take?
What can they do to be most helpful to you right now
given the dynamics
around the conversations you've been having
with leadership in the Senate?
-: Yeah. Well, I'm very thankful we unleash an army
of you all in this room on Capitol Hill.
So thank you, thank you.
I think it's educate,
it's educate, it's educate.
Bring it out to your members
of Congress where you can connect the dots from your state
and your request where you've seen legal state
whether for medicinal reasons or recreational
ask them to co-sponsor their bill.
Each of you is in a local community.
So try to build a coalition
with local law enforcement, your sheriffs police department
your state attorney generals.
We need this to be about enhancing public safety.
Remember, this is called the State Banking bill.
It's not about cannabis.
It's about safety and trying to reduce the crime
that's exploding from our communities
as a result of too much cash from big businesses.
Commentator: Thank you.
Well, we again, appreciate everything that you're doing.
Final question for you.
We have some bankers here who have,
this is their first time in Washington,
so they have never been here before
and maybe their first time doing meetings
on Capitol Hill with staff and members.
What advice do you have for them?
What recommendations do you have
for them going into these meetings to ensure
that those meetings are as effective as they can be?
-: Well, you can get to the point,
be clear and concise.
Know what you're asking for and where you can
connect the dots to the issues just to see
on the ground back home.
You know, at the end of the day
I represent the people of Montana.
I wanna hear the effect this is having
on the streets in our communities in Montana.
Connect the dots back home.
Remember they say all issues are local issues.
Keep it local, keep it personal
keep it related to your home, or you where you can.
Commentator: Excellent. Senator,
thank you so much for carving out some time
and your obviously very busy schedule to be with us today.
All please join me
in thanking Senator Danes for being with us.
(audience clapping)