TACOMA, Wash.–An initiative has been launched to restore full funding for the Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Fund, which has been targeted by the Trump Administration for significant cuts.
The preliminary Trump administration budget released last week proposes cutting the CDFI Fund program as part of a 4% reduction to the Treasury Department's budget. The administration said elimination of the CDFI fund would save $210 million annually.
Long-time CUNA director of governmental affairs and former NCUA director of Public and Congressional Affairs John McKechnie is leading the effort. Joining McKechnie, who is now with the Washington firm Total Spectrum, are Michael Beall and Stacy Augustine. Beall has served as the CEO of the Missouri and Maryland/DC Credit Union Leagues, CEO of the National Cooperative Business Association, and was instrumental in the fight for HR 1151’s passage while representing North Carolina credit unions for the then North Carolina Credit Union League. Augustine is the architect of the Washington state credit union charter, which was the first state where a credit union can have a state-wide field of membership.
According to organizers, the advocacy team will “work to make sure appropriators understand both the measured impacts of the CDFI Fund and stories from their districts. In 2016 alone, CDFI grant awardees provided $3.6 billion in loans to people of modest means and in the communities where they live, financed over 13,300 businesses and provided financial counseling and education to 427,000 people. CDFI-certified credit unions have powerful data on the number of jobs their loans create, jobs retained by car loans, the number of households that are made more financially stable through refinancing of subprime loans and other evidence that the CDFI funding has contributed to economic vitality and removed people from entitlement programs.”
Consulting firm CU Strategic Planning said it has been aggregating that data for several years and is providing the research to support the advocacy effort.
Organizers said the strategy is to focus on the appropriation process through Congress and key contacts with the Trump administration.
“It’s important to recognize that President Trump’s proposed budget is a starting point for negotiations,” said McKechnie. “Our efforts will be focused on measuring the CDFI’s strong record of creating jobs and other impacts to the legislators’ districts. The next step is making sure the CDFI Fund’s strong business case of its impacts in red and blue communities across America comes out loud and clear on Capitol Hill.”
The CDFI Fund was created by both Republicans and Democrats, and this advocacy effort will use that to its advantage, according to organizers.
“The CDFI has had strong bipartisan support, and has seen its funding rise under the last Republican Congress,” said Beall. “We are going to show them that their support has been a wise investment, and that the CDFI’s mission is aligned with members of both parties that believe in the economic stimulation of building new small businesses, supporting first time homebuyers, and lending for transportation to work.”
Added Augustine, “We are bringing this advocacy team together because the credit union movement is looking to us for confidence that they can believe in the future of the CDFI Fund.”
CU Strategic Planning said it has helped more credit unions win CDFI grant funding than any other organization and is partnered with several state trade associations including the League of Southeastern Credit Unions and the Louisiana Credit Union League.
As CUToday.info reported here, NAFCU has also expressed concerns over the cuts.