WASHINGTON–Both the House and Senate have returned to Washington this week for the second session of the 115th Congress, and the schedule is relatively light. Most of the attention will be going to legislation to keep funding the government; current funding is set to expire on Jan. 19.
Credit unions will be watching several hearings beginning today, according to CUNA’s Chief Advocacy Officer Ryan Donovan. Those hearings include:
- Today, the Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. ET on “Combatting Money Laundering and Other Forms of Illicit Finance: Opportunities to Reform and Strengthen BSA Enforcement.”
- Today, the House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing titled “Legislative Proposals for a More Efficient Federal Financial Regulatory Regime: Part III.”
- On Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET, the House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on “A Further Examination of Federal Reserve Reform Proposals.”
At the Wednesday hearing, several proposals will be heard that have the strong backing of credit unions, including HR 1264, the Community Financial Institution Exemption Act, sponsored by Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX).
“This legislation would make even more clear the CFPB’s authority to exempt community financial institutions from its regulations,” said Donovan. “Dodd Frank couldn’t be any clearer on this, but as we saw during the (Richard) Cordray tenure (at CFPB) there was a tremendous reluctance on the part of the Bureau and its director to exercise its authority. What the Williams bill does is exempt FIs below $50 billion from the CFPB unless there is abuse in that class. We have strongly supported this legislation since introduced in the previous Congress.”
Also to be heard are HR 2683, the Protecting Veterans Credit Act of 2017, HR 4648, the Home Mortgage Reporting Relief Act of 2017, and HR 4725, the Community Bank Reporting Relief Act.