ALEXANDRIA, Va.—NCUA Friday stated it can perform its ongoing duties with a single board member.
The agency, in a statement, said: “It is the NCUA’s long-held view that a single board member constitutes a quorum when there are no other board members. Chairman Hauptman and NCUA’s leadership are equipped with the required authorities to continue implementing the Administration’s priorities and fulfilling our mission of protecting the system of cooperative credit and its member-owners through effective chartering, supervision, regulation, and insurance.”
As CUToday.info reported, Wednesday President Donald Trump removed NCUA Democratic Board Members Todd Harper and Tanya Otsuka, leaving Chairman Kyle Hauptman, a Republican, as the lone board member. That raised questions among many credit union insiders about the agency’s ability to function with only one board member.
CUToday.info followed with a story on former NCUA Chairman Dennis Dollar that asserted the agency has the authority, citing a period in early 2002 when Dollar, then chairman of the agency, acted on behalf of the board as its single member for two months. NCUA cited the CUToday.info report in its release and noted Dollar’s perspectives.
“We did not have a crystal ball in early 2002 but we recognized that, although unprecedented at the time, this could happen again,” said Dollar, principal partner at Dollar Associates, in the CUToday.info report. “Therefore, I took several actions while serving as chairman of the one-person NCUA board to establish a precedent that – if this ever happened again – the agency would not be stymied in doing its job and could function with a one-member board until the three-member board was reestablished with future appointments.”