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The House Financial Services Committee yesterday approved landmark legislation aimed at helping financial institutions serve marijuana businesses, as efforts to allow use of the drug continue to advance in almost all 50 states, Politico reported. The bill, sponsored by Reps. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) and Denny Heck (D-Wash.), would shield banks and credit unions from federal regulatory penalties if they serve marijuana businesses legalized at the state level. It was approved along with an amendment from Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) that would extend the same treatment to insurers. The legislation, which has nearly 150 cosponsors, now goes to the full House for a vote. The majority of Republicans on the committee voted against the measure, which was sent to the full House on a 45-15 vote, with multiple lawmakers arguing that Congress should first consider the legality of marijuana more broadly.

Congress may make another attempt to reform the chapter 12 bankruptcy law to allow more financially distressed family farmers to restructure debts and remain in operation, CNBC.com reported. Congress has made several changes to the Bankruptcy Code over the years but experts suggest the average size of family farms has grown and the debt caps on chapter 12 have not kept up with the times. In December, Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) introduced a measure to help financially struggling family farmers by proposing to increase the bankruptcy debt limits allowed in chapter 12 filings to $10 million from roughly $4.1 million. The measure didn’t pass, but a spokesperson for Klobuchar, a 2020 presidential candidate, told CNBC yesterday that she plans to reintroduce the bill. Similarly, Grassley was quoted last week as promising to “push ahead with reforms to chapter 12 protection for family farmers that I have been developing as former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.”

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) on Wednesday reintroduced legislation to end the carried-interest tax break that benefits investment-fund managers, criticizing President Trump for failing to end the "loophole" in his tax law despite pledging to do so during the 2016 election, The Hill reported. The carried interest tax break allows some investment managers, such as private-equity fund managers, to have certain income taxed as capital gains rather than as ordinary income. The top rate on capital gains is 23.8 percent, including an investment tax for high earners created under ObamaCare, while the top rate for ordinary income is 37 percent. Under the Democrats' legislation, carried-interest income would be taxed at ordinary-income rates instead of at capital gains rates. Trump had called for an elimination of the carried-interest tax break when he ran for president. But the tax-cut law he signed in December 2017 did not end the tax preference. Instead, the law required investment managers to hold assets for at least three years in order to qualify for the tax preference, up from one year under previous law. Democrats argue that the carried-interest preference should be eliminated because it allows investment-fund managers to pay a lower tax rate than middle-class workers.