WASHINGTON—The House has passed its version of the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) without a provision credit unions argue would harm them when it comes to nominal leases on military bases.
As CUToday.info reported the credit union trade groups have been fighting any language that would open up military base leases to banks.
The House bill also passed with an amendment that would make reforms to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/anti-money laundering (AML) regime. The bipartisan COUNTER Act and Corporate Transparency Act – which includes BSA/AML reforms and creates a beneficial ownership registry – was added as an amendment to the House version of the NDAA this week.
The Senate continues to work through amendments for its FY2021 NDAA. The 2020 NDAA passed by the Senate included language that would have opened military base leases to banks; the language was eliminated when the bill went to conference committee.
“We thank the House for moving along with an NDAA that maintains access to military bases credit unions have earned through decades of service to military members and families," said CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle. "It also contains important BSA modernization language that will help cooperation between law enforcement and financial institutions. CUNA, Leagues and credit unions pushed back against banker calls to expand the military base exemption by continually making sure credit unions’ legacy of member service and not-for-profit nature was brought to the attention to policymakers. We remain concerned that the exemption is expanded in the Senate NDAA, but will continue our advocacy to make sure it is not included in the final version of the bill.”
Other Legislation
CUNA noted the House is also expected to consider the State, Foreign operations, Agriculture, Rural Development, Interior, Environment, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act in the coming days and CUNA’s Nussle wrote to House leadership today to support the funding level of $17 million for the Cooperative Development Program (CDP). The full text of this letter can be found here.