WASHINGTON–The federal bureaucracy is favoring larger institutions when it comes to funding for international programs at the expense of credit unions, according to letters sent to Congress.
CUNA and the World Council of Credit Unions have sent joint letters to the House and Senate Appropriations Committee and Subcommittee Leadership regarding 2018 funding. The letters express strong support draft report language in the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2018, which would urge the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to give a high priority to credit union development, as required by existing law.
WOCCU receives partial funding through USAID programs to further its mission to, “Reduce Poverty through Sustainable Community Based Financing of Private Entrepreneurship and Agriculture.”
“In developing economies, credit unions reach more than 93 million members who have mobilized more than $1.5 trillion in savings to lend to one another,” the letter states. “The problem that WOCCU has encountered is that the bureaucracy at USAID favors larger programs to the detriment of smaller international players like WOCCU. This favoritism contradicts current law (§ 2151i(2)) requiring USAID to [give specific priority to] ... “national credit union systems through credit union-to-credit union technical assistance that strengthens the ability of low income people and micro-entrepreneurs to save and to have access to credit for their own economic advancement.”
In response, the letter calls for language be inserted into the FY 2018 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act to read as follows: “In order to promote private sector entrepreneurship, establish public-private partnerships fostering democratic civil society building and strengthen the participation of the rural and urban poor in their country's development, the Committee encourages USAID to give high priority pursuant to 22 U.S.C. § 2151i(2) to the promotion of national credit union systems through credit union-to-credit union technical assistance that strengthens the ability of low income people and micro-entrepreneurs to save and to have access to credit for their own economic advancement.”