WASHINGTON–It’s going to be a busy week on Capitol Hill in terms of congressional hearings in which credit unions have an interest, especially later this week when markup begins on the National Defense Authorization Act for 2024.
While CUNA Chief Deputy Officer for Federal Government Affairs Jason Stverak said the “elephant in the room” in Washington this week will remain discussions between Congress and the White House over the federal debt limit ceiling, the hearings credit unions will be watching include:
Wednesday
- Joint House Financial Services/Agriculture Subcommittee Hearing: The Future of Digital Assets: Measuring the Regulatory Gaps in the Digital Assets Markets
- House Financial Services Committee: Federal Responses to Recent Bank Failures
- House Energy & Commerce Committee: The Fiscal Year 2024 Environmental Protection Agency Budget
- House Committee on Oversight: ESG Part I: An Examination of Environment, Social and Governance Practices with Attorneys General
Thursday
- House Financial Services Committee: Oversight of Silicon Valley bank and Signature Bank: GAO’s Preliminary Review
- Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs: Examining Cannabis Banking Challenges of Small Businesses and Workers. “This is the second hearing on this topic by the committee, so hopefully some progress can be made to advance the SAFE Banking Act,” said NAFU VP-Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler.
Friday
- House Committee on Armed Services Markup FY 2024. This hearing begins the annual debate over whether banks should have access to military bases equal to that of credit unions. As CUToday.info reported here, the American Bankers Association and two banking associations have told Congress credit unions are blocking such access because CUs “fear competition.”
“We will continue to remind Congress what a boondoggle this is and that (military) members continue to be served incredibly well,” said Stverak.
Regulatory Issues
Meanwhile, Ann Petros, VP-regulatory affairs with NAFCU, said that on the regulatory front the association will be focused on compiling and submitting comments to the EPA related to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
“We have a number of credit unions that are very interested in applying for grants available through the (fund) and we want to get some clarification around the EPA’s recent guidance,” said Petros. “We want to make sure the requirements for eligibility are clear.”
Petros said NAFCU will also be submitting a letter today to Treasury in response to an OMB information collection around the Emergency Capital Investment Program (ECIP).
“There has been some discussion around how to collect detailed demographic information on these loans and are looking for some clarification from Treasury,” she said.
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