ARLINGTON, Va.–Credit unions appear to have one win and one loss when it comes to provisions of particular interest in the trillion-dollar-plus reconciliation bill before the House, but could that change?
It won’t be known until the final legislative text is voted on by both houses of Congress, according to Brad Thaler, vice president of legislative affairs with NAFCU. Until then, there are any number of possibilities in what may be included in that bill, one of which it may not pass at all.
The Good News (For Now)
First, the good news, at least for now. Two weeks ago credit unions had joined with other groups in actively opposing a proposal financial institutions report all inflows/outflows in member accounts’ of more than $600. The opposition led to a change in the proposal to make the threshold $10,000. But that higher amount didn’t lead to a change in opposition to the plan from FIs, taxpayer groups and others, including members of Congress.
As CUToday.info reported, the White House finally issued a statement saying the plan had been scrapped. But might it still be resurrected, perhaps in another form?
“It’s not in the bill as currently drafted by the House,” said Thaler. “But we can’t say it’s done for sure because, based on conversations at Treasury last week, they are still looking for ways to close the tax gap. That would mean potentially ways to enhance reporting. What that may look like, we don’t know, as there haven’t been any additional proposals. They say they don’t want it to impact anyone making less than $400,000. While it’s positive it’s not in the text as the text has come out, that’s not the final text. We need to be vigilant. If you look at the outline, at least from the president, they still want to raise money” to offset cost of reconciliation bill spending.
The Bad News (For Now)
But not every proposal opposed by credit unions has been dropped, and that includes a plan that would allow the Small Business Administration (SBA) to get back into the direct lending business in competition with credit unions and other lenders, noted Thaler, particularly in the 7(a) space.
“That is in the draft as released by the House last week,” he said. “There are still a lot of concerns about that. Lawmakers have raised concerns about SBA’s ability to do that and whether it is such a good idea. Many believe the SBA is better suited to using the public/private partnership as they have in the past. We are still working on that and are still concerned.”
What Will Be the News?
All of that debate and discussion will be further affected by rules and practices in place in both the House and Senate (see related story).