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Washington, D.C.— Today, Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), Chairman of the Small Business Subcommittee on Contracting and Infrastructure, joined full Committee Chairwoman Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY), and five additional members of the Committee in writing to the Acting Administrator and General Counsel of the Small Business Administration (SBA), seeking clarity surrounding an SBA policy that makes direct and indirect marijuana businesses ineligible from receiving SBA financial assistance. The policy excludes these businesses from flagship SBA resources like the 7(a) and 504 lending programs.

“Small businesses in states with legal marijuana are effectively forced into making the unfair choice between being able to access SBA-backed lending or conducting business with a large and growing sector of local economies in states with legal marijuana,” wrote the representatives. “If SBA’s stated mission is to ‘aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business concerns,’ we are concerned this policy would do more to harm small businesses than it would assist or protect them and create more confusion for entrepreneurs than clarity.”

The full text of the letter with the list of signatories is available here.

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