By Ray Birch
WASHINGTON—Stating its primary strategy has been to keep credit unions out of the tax bill, America’s Credit Unions said it has contingency plans ready should it need to shift its focus to getting CUs “out of the tax bill."
ACU President and CEO Jim Nussle spoke with CUToday.info about the strategies and tactics the organization has employed during this year’s challenging battle to protect the credit union tax exemption. Nussle offered an in-depth look at what ACU has been doing during last year’s election cycle and throughout 2025.
He also responded to critics who have claimed the trade association has not been as effective as it could be in defending the credit union tax status.
Nussle outlined some of the behind-the-scenes initiatives the organization has undertaken, in addition to its Don’t Tax My Credit Union campaign and a series of supporting digital ads.
Nussle emphasized ACU began its planning for the tax fight during the 2024 election cycle, identifying new members of Congress, and supporting them both at the national and then at the state and local levels through the leagues. Nussle said ACU early on recognized the tax bill would be one of newly elected President Donald Trump’s key priorities in 2025.
“Then, we met in Miami after the election—about 120 professional advocates, league presidents, their chairs, my entire board—and we had a strategy session,” Nussle said. “We knocked out our strategy for this year and we kicked it off at the beginning of 2025 with a welcome back to Congress fly-in that many leagues and credit unions participated in—welcoming the new freshman members of Congress on both sides of the aisle.”
The initial efforts focused on surrounding lawmakers with positive messages about the credit union difference.
“Then, we prepared for a rollout of our strategy at our Governmental Affairs Conference (GAC),” Nussle explained.
GAC Address
The tax fight comprised Nussle’s entire GAC opening main stage address, as did Chief Advocacy Officer Carrie Hunt’s following presentation.
“Also, the leagues, and their different activities during GAC, all focused on the tax fight,” Nussle said.
Since the beginning of the year, and including during GAC, there have been a number of individual Hill Hikes, Nussle said.
“We had different leagues come in, in addition to our main Hike the Hill effort during GAC,” he said. “All year we have held targeted conversations with people in the House, Senate—including lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee, the Senate Banking Committee and the Ways and Means Committee.”
Nussle said his efforts first targeted those key leaders.
“I met with the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee (Jason Smith, R-MO) who is going to write the tax bill,” he said, noting the bill now lies in Smith’s hands. “I needed to talk to him, and together with Caroline Willard (vice-chair of the ACU board and president/CEO of the Cornerstone CU League) and a credit union from Chairman Smith’s hometown, we visited his office and talked to him about the tax bill. We not only shared the positives about what credit unions do, we also tried to create a little bit of irritation regarding the fact we believe credit unions will be very involved in talking to members of his committee. We did that on the Senate side, too, with Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID).
“I met with Mike, and we served in Congress together,” continued Nussle. “So, he's somebody I know very well. We talked very directly, very plainly about what needed to happen to protect the credit union tax status. I also met with the majority leaders in the House and Senate again, together again with some league members, including Jeff Olson, president and CEO of the Dakotas CU Association.”
Stay Out Of The Bill
Nussle reiterated that ACU’s “entire focus” this year has been keeping credit unions out of the tax bill.
“That's the whole thing—stay out of the bill. Do not become one of the ‘pay fors,’ as they are called, the things Congress is looking for to offset the extension of the Trump tax cuts,” he said. “But we realize it’s possible this year we may have to pivot the objective to get out of the tax bill.”
Nussle served on the Ways and Means Committee when he was a member of Congress.
“There are 25 Republicans today who are on that committee who are going to help write the bill with the chairman—25 Republicans are going to sit in a room,” he noted. “We now know that meeting may happen as early as this Monday, April 28. We want there to be enough Republicans in that private, members-only meeting to say we don't want credit unions to be one of the offsets, one of the pay-fors. And we don’t want large credit unions taxed—we don’t want credit unions of any size taxed.”
As CUToday.info has reported, the Independent Community Bankers of America have been aggressively advocating for credit unions above $1 billion in assets to be taxed.
ACU, Nussle contended, has secured enough support so the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee will understand it is going to be difficult for him and fellow Republicans going forward if credit unions are taxed.
“We believe we have provided enough irritation to the system,” Nussle said. “We believe two key messages of ours have gotten through: First, that credit unions do such a great job for their members in their communities with financial well-being, advancing small businesses. We have been effusive in everything from data to stories, to let them know why the credit union difference is so important.
“Second, we have worked to let them know there are 140 million members who are going to be some kind of pissed off if credit unions get put into this bill,” added Nussle. “We want them to all know that we plan to be an irritant, as well as supporters, through this process, depending on how the committee operates.”
36 Members Of Congress Sign Letter
As CUToday.info reported, in late March, ACU highlighted a letter signed by 36 members of Congress pledging their support for the CU tax exemption. That letter drew comments from Washington insiders and CUToday.info readers asking if that letter actually showed a lack of support for CUs, given the limited number of supporters signing and the names on the list lacking influential decision makers.
“I don't necessarily agree with that assessment,” Nussle said about feedback on the support letter. “Anytime you have a lawmaker, let alone a bipartisan group willing to go on the record together, standing up for credit unions and urging their colleagues to protect the tax status, that's a win. We have many credit union champions in Congress. We've directly communicated with all 535 House offices, and had more than half a million letters sent by constituents in support of our cause. The cumulative impact of all these efforts is what will make the difference in the end.”
Nussle—a former Republican member of the House, chair of the House Budget Committee and director of the Office of Management and Budget— described what he has personally seen in Ways and Means Committee meetings during construction of a budget bill. He noted how the chairman will have to lobby for support, balancing the need for unified support against representatives’ concerns over decisions that will upset constituents in their home districts.
“The chairman is going to have to address questions like, ‘Why did you make me vote against credit unions,’” he said. “We all like the positive messages that we deliver to Congress about credit unions. But hear me when I say negative messages work sometimes just as well, if not more powerfully. We have been effusive about this—America's Credit Unions, the leagues and down to individual credit unions.”
ACU, Nussle noted, just completed two weeks of “intensive” in-district meetings with lawmakers.
“In the last half hour a league president and I had two meetings with Republican Ways and Means Committee members,” he said late Friday.
Nussle reiterated that if efforts to keep credit unions out of the tax bill fail, ACU is prepared to take the next step.
“We have a strategy to get out, and that's amendments. That's causing a vote to occur, where people have to in public—not behind closed doors people—take a vote. And that's a tougher vote, when you're voting publicly against credit union members, voting against local community financial institutions that have been there during thick and thin when banks have been abandoning communities.”
Nussle said ACU believes Memorial Day is Trump’s target to have the budget bill completed.
“It’s going to be tough for them to get the votes—it’s tough to get votes to pass anything today in the House of Representatives,” Nussle pointed out. “This year, with the economy the way it's been reeling from what's been happening lately, I believe Republicans want to put a win on the board. So, this budget bill is going to be a priority. I'm betting they move a bill to the floor by Memorial Day.”
Nussle acknowledged the urgency of tax-battle efforts in the coming weeks. The Defense Credit Union Council, has shared the same message, holding an industry-wide meeting April 21 to address the tax fight, and setting a second event for April 30. Nussle said ACU will be attending that second meeting, noting it attended DCUC’s first event. America’s Credit Unions also held an industry update April 21 that addressed its efforts to protect the credit union tax exemption.
“We are on the precipice of this decision and we are not empty handed,” he said. “We have done the work at the national level. We've done it with the leagues and credit unions. We have done it across the board. You can always say, boy, I'd like to have done a little bit more here. Or, boy, I wish we could have convinced this member over there…But I feel very strongly about where we are right now.”
Could More Have Been Done?
But while Nussle feels good about the work ACU has done to protect credit unions’ tax break, he acknowledged the question of whether more could be done will always be asked. That question—whether ACU has done enough to protect credit unions’ tax status—has been asked by Washington insiders.
“I feel very strongly about our efforts this year to keep credit unions out of the tax bill. And we’re still doing all that we can,” he said. “For instance, this week we are going to begin meeting regularly with the both the leagues and credit unions that have been the points of contact to these 25 Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee. We're doing everything we can to protect the tax status. I said from the beginning that we needed to come together as an industry early to take the tax status off the table as a pay-for as soon as possible.
“We've developed strong advocacy and communications strategies, invested in proven tactics to raise awareness of the issue and get the credit union difference in front of lawmakers, rallied the industry and its members and allies to advocate directly, countered misinformation from bankers, and held several meetings with the key tax decision makers,” continued Nussle.
Nussle acknowledged it’s difficult to be “reflective” in the middle of a tough tax fight.
“There’s so much more of our combined America's Credit Unions/league strategy yet to unfold as the tax bill is drafted and considered,” said Nussle. “As with anything in life, I'm sure there are some things we could have done differently, but I am very proud of our efforts up to this point and know we have a strong plan in place to continue our momentum through the rest of this process.”
Nussle stated his final point firmly.
“I want to say this loudly, because I don't want to leave anything just assumed,” concluded Nussle. “The members of the House Ways and Means Committee who have the bill now, these are the people who are going to write the bill. So, if we want to stay out of the bill, this is where we have to place our efforts today. We will laser focus on that on that objective over the next several weeks.”