WASHINGTON–CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle will testify before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee Tuesday as part a hearing titled “Making a Financial Choice: More Capital or More Government Control?”
The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. (ET) and will focus on committee Chair Rep. Jeb Hensarling’s (R-TX) proposed alternative bill to the Dodd-Frank Act. This will be the first time that Nussle, a former congressman from Iowa, will testify on Capitol Hill as president/CEO of CUNA.
“CUNA’s voice, which represents the nation’s credit unions and 100 million members, will bring a strong message to Congress about the negative impact regulatory burden has had on credit unions, how they fared in the financial crisis, and how the provisions in Title I would help credit unions without jeopardizing safety and soundness,” Nussle said in a statement.
Hensarling has unveiled a number of parts of his bill, called the Financial CHOICE Act of 2016, and there are a number of provisions that have CUNA’s backing, including:
- Repealing the Durbin amendment to Dodd-Frank, which requires a limit on fees charged to retailers for debit card purchases.
- Reforming the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s leadership to a five-person commission, and placing the bureau under the appropriations process.
- Limiting the Department of Justice’s Operation Choke Point, which would prevent the federal government from limiting or terminating financial institutions’ relationships with certain customers unless certain criteria are met.
- Reforming federal examinations of financial institutions to create an independent ombudsman and an independent examination appeals process.
Hensarling’s bill also includes language from a number of CUNA-supported bills. The language would extend regulatory relief to mortgage lending, including needed changes to data reporting under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.