On March 7, 2019, the bill was introduced in U.S. House of Representatives by Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) and was referred to the Judiciary and Financial Services Committees.

[17][18] A push to include the SAFE Banking Act provisions in the end-of-year COVID-19 stimulus failed, though hope remained it could pass in 2021 if reintroduced.

[21] Industry publication Marijuana Business Daily asserted that SAFE Banking Plus was likely to be on the agenda in the lame-duck session following the November elections,[22] as did Dow Jones' MarketWatch,[23] while Kiplinger's Personal Finance said it had "some probability" of passage.

[24] In late November, Beacon Policy Advisors and Cowen Washington Research Group gave it a 70 and 75% chance of passage respectively.

[25] In early December it was reported that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, with bipartisan support, planned to attach the legislation to a "must pass" bill like the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act during the lame-duck session.

[26] The bill's language was added to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (NDAA) by amendment on September 21, 2021.

[34] On April 20, 2022, Senator Patty Murray said that the banking amendment was likely to get passed in the America COMPETES Act "in a little over a month" through conference committee negotiations.

Senators Jeff Merkley (D) and Steve Daines (R), and Representatives Dave Joyce (R) and Earl Blumenauer (D) were the lead sponsors.

[44][45] Senators including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced a new version of the bill called Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act on September 20.

Furthermore, a depository institution is not, under federal law, liable or subject to asset forfeiture for providing a loan or other financial services to a legitimate cannabis-related business.