A group of U.S. senators, including New Mexico’s Sen. Martin Heinrich (D), are calling for provisions to be added to a spending bill that will allow small cannabis businesses to gain access to federal Small Business Administration (SBA) loan programs.
In May, 10 senators sent a letter to the leadership of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government asking that the Fiscal Year 2025 Financial Services and General Government Related Agencies (FSGG) spending bill include provisions to allow state-approved cannabis businesses to gain access to SBA loan programs.
The spending bill funds the operations of the Department of the Treasury, the Executive Office of the President, the federal judiciary, the District of Columbia, the Small Business Administration, and more than two dozen independent federal agencies.
If the appropriations subcommittee were to adopt the provisions called for by the coalition of senators, SBA programs like the Loan Guarantee Program, Disaster Assistance Program, Microloan Program, and Certified Development Company Loan Program would not be able to deny a loan to a business just because it deals in weed.
Unlike businesses in other industries, marijuana companies are currently blocked from accessing federal loan programs, because weed is still illegal at the federal level. That means it’s much harder to get a small cannabis business started without access to a large chunk of startup money, leaving most homegrown entrepreneurs out in the cold.
The letter notes that banks are unwilling to work with marijuana businesses due to federal restrictions and allowing those businesses access to federal loans would help ease that burden. According to the senators, SBA loan programs were made to provide loans to businesses that “cannot easily access capital.”
“SBA loan programs would be especially helpful to cannabis small businesses because they would fill gaps left by the private sector and could expand the availability of capital for many entrepreneurs — including for our minority, women, and veteran business owners,” wrote the senators.
The letter also called for language in the spending bill that would give marijuana companies access to SBA entrepreneurial development programs. The senators said that having access to these programs is critical for businesses looking to navigate a new and developing industry. They said it would support the creation of new jobs, support small businesses and raise revenues in states that have legalized marijuana.
“SBA’s entrepreneurial development programs provide critical training, counseling, and technical assistance to small businesses across the country—resources desperately needed by entrepreneurs in the new and burgeoning state-legal cannabis industry,” said the letter.
Alongside Heinrich, the letter was signed by Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Ed Markey (D-MA), Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Michael Bennett (D-CO).
The effort behind the letter was led by Nevada’s Rosen, who spearheaded a very similar letter in 2022 that was never answered. Rosen has also called for lawmakers to include language that would open up SBA loan programs for weed companies in the SAFER Banking Act, a bill that would allow banks to work with marijuana businesses without fear of prosecution.
In a news release, Rosen said, “Small businesses are the backbone of Nevada’s economy, which is why I’m leading efforts to cut through bureaucratic red tape that prevents them from accessing capital and working to secure the federal funding for resources they need to thrive.”
The subcommittee has not publicly responded to the letter.