WASHINGTON–Two members of Congress—one of whom is a former credit union employee—shared the story of how they were able to help kill a piece of legislation that would have moved NCUA under the congressional appropriations process.
During a session at CUNA’s GAC hosted by CUNA’s chief advocacy officer, Ryan Donovan, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) and Mark Amodei (R-NV) shared their work together on stopping a proposal that came out of the Financial Services Committee that would have taken the operating fees paid by credit unions and put them under Congress, which then would fund NCUA.
Aguilar, incidentally, is a former executive with Arrowhead Credit Union who previously attended GAC as an attendee.
Here’s a look at the Q&A:
Donovan: Sometimes stopping something bad from happening is as important as making something happen. On this appropriation of the NCUA budget, it could have been a back-door way of taxing credit unions. These two members of Congress stood up for us and got those appropriations out of the bill. Tell us about your relationship with credit unions.
Aguilar: I am more comfortable on that side of the stage than this one. I cut my teeth as a credit union member as a kid, and then did advocacy and government affairs at a credit union. A lot of the people in my life who made a difference in my life I met at the credit union.
Amodei: My dad was a classified state employee for the State of Nevada and a member of an outfit called Nevada State Employees Credit Union, or, as it was known in my small town as ‘the credit union.’ And then later on as I was more involved in running for office there were people from several of the credit unions that volunteered to go door to door with me. That’s not a lot of fun. But they believed in me and it made an impression. They didn’t have to do that.
Donovan: What were the dynamics of the debate around the appropriations bill?
Aguilar: Mark and I felt we were on the right side of the issue. I think it shows the interesting nature of our issues. They may not always be tied to the Financial Services Committee
Amodei: First of all, you weren’t asking for a favor. You had good facts. Frankly, this is money that shouldn’t be appropriated. It’s your money. When you looked at it, it just didn’t make any sense.
Donovan: What about impact of advocacy?
Aguilar: Your stories made the difference. It’s the most powerful thing you can do. You take time not just at GAC, but answer the calls and emails when CUNA reaches out to you.
Amodei: When we asked you to mobilize the troops and you did it, it was like ‘Wow, you did it.’ I didn’t think we had the votes in a roll call vote. We found the “I’s had it.
Donovan: Talk to us about the comity in the House?
Aguilar: It happens in small ways, but we need to have it happen in large ways.
Amodei: I have been here for seven years, if you focus on the rhetoric and the talking point as much of the electronic media does, then we’re all going to go to hell. But if you actually look at the facts and do our job of getting the policy right, and if you can get past the rhetoric and the talking points, the answers are out there. And they are out there in ways that he doesn’t have to kill himself and I don’t have to kill myself. And I am older, but if the voters fire me in that job review process every two years, then they fire me. As long as your first move is always ‘the other side sucks,’ no wonder everyone hates us.
Aguilar: Share your stories. So many of you are here as volunteers. You’re not stockholders. You don’t have these other motivations. You’re here because it’s the right thing to do, and you will succeed in the long run by doing that.