WASHINGTON–The House of Representatives is adjourned this week, while the Senate will meet for three days, leaving just one hearing of interest to credit unions—and it’s expected to draw considerable attention.
The Senate Finance Committee on Thursday is to hold a hearing titled “The President’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget,” with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to appear to testify. While that would typically draw interest as members of both parties seek to draw attention to their positions, the failure of two banks within the last week and the federal government response and bailout are expected to send the hearing in a new direction, according to both NAFCU and CUNA.
Discussion to ‘Morph’
“Obviously, that will probably morph into a discussion of the current state of the banking sector in the United States with the issues (related to) Silicon Valley Bank and other banks,” said Jason Stverak, deputy chief advocacy officer for federal affairs for CUNA. “We have been monitoring the situation and we continue to communicate with our members so credit unions and credit union members are as well informed as possible on what is going on. Obviously, this should not be taken lightly, but everyone should be reminded America’s credit unions are safe and secure and not one member has ever lost dime in a federally insured credit union.”
The failure of the banks and the backstop funding Treasury has made available could add new impetus to an effort to pass legislation that would expand the lending authorities of NCUA’s Central Liquidity Facility, Stverak noted, calling the passage of such a bill “incredibly important” to provide assurance to “credit unions in case they run into any liquidity issues.”
NAFCU VP Concurs
NAFCU’s VP of legislative affairs, Brad Thaler, agreed with Stverak on what should be expected on Thursday.
“I suspect the events of the last few days will get a lot of focus on the questioning for Secretary Yellen,” he said.
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