ALEXANDRIA, Va.–There has been a change in the senior management at NCUA, including the retirement of one person who was on Capitol Hill during one of the most critical moments in credit union history.
NCUA Board Member Todd Harper has named Catherine Galicia as his new senior policy counsel. Galicia joins the NCUA from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where she directed legislative affairs.
Galacia will replace the retiring Michael Radway, who joined the agency in 2013 as senior policy advisor to then board member Rick Metsger. When Metsger was named NCUA Chairman in 2016, Radway was elevated to chief of staff.
Radway was working as legislative director for then Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA), one of the original co-sponsors of the bill officially known as the Credit Union Members Access Act (HR 1151) and was in the House of Representatives’ cloakroom in April of 1998 right before the vote on HR 1151, hoping to get one rep to stand up and ask for a roll call vote.
Cloakroom Discussions
As Radway shared with CUToday.info here, that roll call vote, which eventually took place, was critical to the passage of the bill when it landed in the Senate
“But there was an agreement among the House that a roll call vote for HR 1151 would not be asked for, as the result would embarrass the bankers,” explained Radway. “But a number of us knew that it was important that we have real momentum coming out of the House in order to put pressure on the Senate and force them to act. So we had to find a member of the House who was not part of the gentlemen’s agreement.”
Radway said the cloakroom discussions worked, as one member of the House, whose name he does not recall, stood up and asked for a roll call vote.
“The bill passed 411-8,” recalled Radway. “That vote was like a slingshot—it shot the bill out of the House and over to the Senate in a way the Senate could not ignore.”
Prior to joining NCUA, Radway also served as chairman and public interest director for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle during the Clinton and Bush administrations and as chairman of the Council of Federal Home Loan Banks.
Capitol Hill Experience
Similarly, Galicia also has extensive experience on Capitol Hill, and has worked on financial services policy in the public and private sectors since 1995. Her experience includes service as senior counsel for the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, as associate vice president for legislative affairs at the Mortgage Bankers Association, as vice president and director of government affairs at Banco Popular, and as counsel and legislative staff in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
“For more than two decades, Catherine has deeply impressed me with the breadth and depth of her knowledge of financial services and consumer financial protection policy,” Harper said. “In advising lawmakers, regulators, and industry leaders, she has demonstrated excellent judgment, regularly built trust among stakeholders to forge bipartisan coalitions, and strategically resolved differences between parties. I look forward to working with her to protect the safety and soundness of the credit union system and the interests of the 117 million Americans who place their faith in that system.”