WASHINGTON–With the House and Senate back in session this week credit unions are paying attention to a couple of deadlines, the first of which is Friday.
“What’s on the floor calendar is less important than what is ahead of Congress the next two to three weeks,” said CUNA’s Chief Advocacy Officer, Ryan Donovan, noting the remainder of the congressional session is centered around four pieces of legislation: the Highway Trust Fund, the Omnibus appropriations bill, the extension of tax provisions, and action around budget reconciliation.
Credit unions are particularly focused on two of those, the Highway Trust Fund and the Omnibus.
On Friday, Dec. 4, the current Highway Trust Fund expires. Tagged on to the already passed trust fund bill in the House are two credit union-backed provisions: modernizing privacy notifications, and a provision allowing privately insured credit unions to join the FHLB system. The Senate version has also passed. A conference report is expected to be filed this week.
Credit unions are also paying attention to the following Friday, Dec. 11, the day on which funding for the federal government expires.
“This is the important to us for a number of reasons, beyond just not wanting the government to shut down,” said Donovan. “There are credit union provisions in the House and Senate bills. The House bill has some CFPB structural improvements in it, the Senate bill has the (Sen. Richard) Shelby regulatory bill in it, which includes about 15 credit union provisions. Not all of them will survive the omnibus and it’s possible none of them will.”
Among the provisions of interest to credit unions in the Senate are qualified mortgages, the NCUA budget transparency act, and language regarding membership eligibility rules for the FHLB, among other provisions.
“There are a lot of things to keep an eye on in a process that is much bigger than the provisions we are concerned with,” observed Donovan.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Shelby (R-AL) recently stated that measures providing regulatory relief to smaller financial institutions could move forward in Congress before year-end.
NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger met with Shelby in November to discuss regulatory relief and other top issues for credit unions. NAFCU and other financial industry trades wrote Senate leaders urging action on the bill in September.
NAFCU added that it too will be watch for progress on the highway bill, and will monitor the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing today on mobile payments in which testimony from representatives of PayPal, Samsung Pay, and the Merchant Customer Exchange will be heard.