A bipartisan bill wants to stop the feds from punishing cannabis insurers

Reps. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) and Warren Davidson (R-OH) reintroduced the Clarifying Law Around Insurance of Marijuana Act — the CLAIM Act — in the House on September 16, the fourth time some version of this bill has surfaced since Velázquez first filed it with then-Rep. Steve Stivers back in 2019.

The bill would bar federal agencies from penalizing or pressuring insurers, brokers and agents simply for writing coverage on state-legal marijuana businesses. That federal exposure is a big reason cannabis operators pay steep premiums for basic coverage — property, general liability, product liability — when they can get it at all.

Tucked inside is also a GAO study requirement: federal auditors would have to report back on the specific barriers — licensing, capital access, insurance among them — that women- and minority-owned cannabis businesses run into trying to break in.

The House bill has a Senate counterpart already moving: S.5049, filed in July by Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), sitting with the Banking Committee. Three prior Congresses have let CLAIM Act versions die without a floor vote, so the real question isn't whether the idea has support — it clearly does, on both sides of the aisle — it's whether this is the Congress that finally moves it out of committee.