WASHINGTON–The Defense Credit Union Council has kicked off its virtual conference week with a quarterly Military Advocacy Update from its president/CEO, Anthony Hernandez.
Hernandez updated Military Advocacy Committee members and other attendees on the latest issues affecting credit unions that serve the U.S. military around the world, noting it has been a busy season and one full of unprecedented challenges, DCUC reported.
Among the issues discussed during the opening day of the virtual conference, themed “Together in Spirit,” were the FY2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), NCUA’s Low Income Credit Union (LICU) Designation technical revision, and the Credit Union Modernization Act 2020.
The DCUC said Hernandez stressed the importance of member engagement with these issues in order to protect defense credit unions’ ability to serve their members.
“To that end, he shared several sample engagement letters that allow defense credit unions to voice their concerns and support for the varying issues,” the DCUC reported. “He also shared a few articles that DCUC wrote in response to accusations leveled at the credit union industry by the banking lobby and its supporters.”
Military Liaison Update
Following Hernandez’s remarks, attendees heard the first of the Credit Union Liaison Officer Updates from Army Captain Jennifer Evans.
“The Military Liaison Officer updates are an important part of the DCUC Conference as they give members the opportunity to talk directly with their military service liaisons about any issues they are seeing on their installations and learn about any new policies that will affect their on-base operations,” the organization said.
DCUC reported Captain Evans provided an update to its members, focusing on changes in the Army leadership structure for Financial Management and how USAFMCOM provides weekly updates to show the status of support for all Army credit unions.
“For example, Army credit unions in conjunction with each of their installations provided exceptional care for Soldiers and their families throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” DCUC said.
Captain Evans also gave an update on Army European Operations, discussing planned troop withdrawals in Germany and realignment to Italy. She also highlighted a potential Overseas hiring issue that is being actively addressed.
Letter to Armed Services Committee
Separately, DCUC, in a letter to the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, addressed the permanent movement of 12,000 troops stationed in Germany to new locations in Italy and back to the United States. The trade group shared concerns about military CUs being able to continue serving servicemembers stationed in Germany, and also in Italy, as many will relocate there.
“The movement of 12,000 troops from the Army Garrison in Bavaria and Spangdahlem Air Base will naturally affect this critical balance in maintaining excellent financial support during this sudden transition,” stated Hernandez in the letter. “Credit Unions invest heavily in the data infrastructure and personnel required to deliver proportionate financial services to overseas installations. A reduction of this magnitude to the population of these military communities could render continued operations at the current levels untenable. This is why we are concerned.”
Hernandez added that while DCUC understands the announcement of this withdrawal is new information, “We are concerned with DoD planners overlooking many of the seemingly smaller details which could have a major impact on the financial readiness of our military. In addition to the resulting credit unions footprint on foreign soil, there are deeper issues such as the ability to hire and bond qualified employees, whether the host nation can tax income, and base access and security issues once the dust settles. These issues will affect servicemembers who remain in Germany or move to Italy.
“Since there are no Congressional delegations for overseas locations, we are asking both the House and Senate Armed Service Committees to consider these important issues in any oversight of DoD withdrawal plans,” stated Hernandez.