WASHINGTON–The credit union trade groups have been meeting with the staff of members of the Congress who will be part of a hearing later this week on NCUA and its budget.
On Friday, the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit will hold the hearing titled “National Credit Union Administration Operations and Budget.” It will be the first hearing in approximately six years since Congress held a hearing related to the NCUA budget, and four years since an NCUA chairman has testified.
Ryan Donovan, chief advocacy officer with CUNA, said that while it’s not “the venue we had sought to air our concerns about the NCUA budget, it will provide members of Congress an opportunity to explore that topic and several others.”
Donovan said that for more than a month CUNA’s representatives have been meeting with members of both the committee and subcommittee to discuss its issues, including NCUA’s revised risk-based capital proposal (with respect to both NCUA’s legal authority to issue that rule as well as well as the capital advocacy provision that was added to the rule), member business lending, field of membership, the corporate stabilization fund, the exam process, and, of course, the NCUA budget.
“I would expect many of those topics would be topics that members of the subcommittee will explore,” said Donovan.
The only potential glitch: the hearing is being held on Friday, a so-called “getaway” day for members of Congress who leave Washington to return to their home districts/states. “We’re trying to get a sense of how well attended it will be,” said Donovan.
Other hearings on the agenda this week of interest to credit unions and FIs:
- “Ending ‘Too Big to Fail’: What is the Proper Role of Capital and Liquidity;” on Thursday, “The Iran Nuclear Deal and its Impact on Terrorism Financing;” on Wednesday, “Examining Federal Reserve Reform Proposals.”
- In the Senate, the Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution will hold a hearing on “The Administrative State v. the Constitution: Dodd-Frank at Five Years” on Wednesday.