WASHINGTON–In recent weeks there have been several bills introduced in Congress that would appear to have little to no chance of passing or, for that matter, of ever even getting out of committee. But the members of Congress who are sponsoring those bills already know that.
Among those bills, as CUToday.info has reported, has been a bill to provide relief to small business and lenders from a proposed CFPB rule, a bill that would require the Treasury to issue a digital dollar, and another that would prohibit the Fed from creating a central bank digital currency.
Why go to the trouble to write and sponsor such legislation, especially when a deeply divided Congress is already consumed with the war in Ukraine and other big issues? Because elections are approaching for every member of the House and a third of the Senate, according to one person.
A Lot of ‘Messaging’
“Some of it is just positioning,” explained Brad Thaler, VP-legislative affairs with NAFCU, adding the bills aren’t just about appeasing lobbyists and supporters. “Politically, a lot of it is messaging, especially coming into an election year. It’s about Congress putting down policy markers. We are seeing this with 1071 reporting, where members of Congress are trying to show the CFPB where some of the congressional thinking is as the CFPB is still finalizing its role. It's Congress showing where it will ultimately have oversight in the future if the CFPB goes into a different direction.”
There are also cases where new bills are written that are narrower than earlier bills addressing the same issue as part of an effort to enhance the likelihood of passage. Case in point was a recent bill that would modernize federal laws related to marijuana, even though the credit union-supported SAFE Act remains before Congress.
Marijuana Legislation
“The (marijuana legislation) we have been watching has been held up because a number of Democrats want broader drug policy reform. It doesn’t appear that the voted are there for broader policy reform should move SAFE independently,” Thaler said. “The Senate Democrats have their own version they’ve been working on. That is unlikely to pass in the short term. The SAFE Banking Act does have bipartisan support and were it to be given an up or down vote in both chambers, it would pass.”
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