WASHINGTON—A Senate Appropriations subcommittee is being urged to include many regulatory relief and funding provisions found in a House-passed bill – such as CFPB reforms – in the panel's fiscal 2018 spending bill.
The spending package that passed the House earlier this month, HR 3354, also includes a measure that would remove the CFPB's authority to regulate for unfair, deceptive and abusive acts or practices (UDAAP) and would wrap the CFPB into the congressional appropriations process.
The bill also repeals the Bureau's abilities to write arbitration rules and to require the collection and reporting of small-business data. It would also provide qualified mortgage relief to certain mortgage loans held in portfolio. The bill includes funding for the NCUA Community Development Revolving Loan Fund as well, which NAFCU noted it has been seeking.
"HR 3354 included many provisions that would provide needed regulatory relief to credit unions, and we would encourage you to include these in the Senate package," wrote NACU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler in a letter to Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government Chairman Shelley Moore Capito (R-WVA) and Ranking Member Chris Coons (D-DE).
In the letter, Thaler also outlined some areas that NAFCU and its members would like improved from the House-passed version of the bill, such as more funding for the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.
Of note, Thaler also pointed to a House-passed amendment that eliminated a provision that would have wrapped the NCUA into the congressional appropriations process. “Backed by NAFCU and pressed further by credit unions in their contacts with lawmakers during NAFCU's Congressional Caucus, the NCUA retained its independence and funding structure,” NAFCU said.
Thaler stressed the importance of the Senate keeping this credit union “victory” intact in its bill.