By Ray Birch
WASHINGTON—Democratic lawmakers Elizabeth Warren and Maxine Waters are urging NCUA’s inspector general to investigate the dismissal of two Democratic board members and to assess whether the agency can function effectively without a complete board.
Maxine Waters
In their letter to NCUA Inspector General James Hagen, the two lawmakers claim Trump’s firing of Todd Harper and Tanya Otsuka are among the President’s attempts to “skirt the rule of law” and “undermine independent agencies.”
As CUToday.info reported, the Trump Administration in mid-April removed Board Members Harper and Otsuka. That has prompted questions about the agency’s ability to perform with one lone member, Chairman Kyle Hauptman. It has also led to a lawsuit filed Monday in United States District Court for the District of Columbia by attorney Vincent Levy of Holwell Shuster & Goldberg LLP, on behalf of the former board members. It seeks to overturn their dismissals and restore Harper and Otsuka to their Senate-confirmed positions.
The suit terms the removal of Harper and Otsuka as “patently unlawful.”
The letter from Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, and Waters, top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, states: “On April 16, 2025, President Trump unlawfully fired NCUA Board Members Todd Harper and Tanya Otsuka. As a result, just one Board Member, Chairman Kyle Hauptman, remains at the NCUA. These firings are part of the President’s concerning attempts to skirt the rule of law, undermine independent agencies, and illegally purge the government of those who work for the American people. The President’s actions threaten to paralyze the Board, create unnecessary legal risk for the agency, and harm the stability of our nation’s credit union system.”
Warren and Waters asserted Trump’s actions undermine the confidence in the NCUA’s ability to serve the American people.
“As the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has recognized, ‘Independence from presidential control is arguably important if agencies charged with regulating financial institutions, such as the NCUA, are to successfully fulfill their responsibilities; people will likely have greater confidence in financial institutions if they believe that the regulation of these institutions is immune from political influence,’” the letter states.
Elizabeth Warren
“In light of President Trump’s decision to fire two of the three Board Members without cause, we write to request information regarding the ability of the NCUA Board, and by extension the agency, to fulfill its mission with only one Board member," the letter continues. "Specifically, we ask your office to investigate the NCUA’s Chairman’s authority to continue full agency operations with only one Board member, and if doing so complies with the spirit and letter of the Federal Credit Union Act and its implementing regulations, including 12 C.F.R. § 791.2.”
Brandy Bruyere, partner at Honigman, LLP, said in a recent CUToday.info report that although NCUA has stated a single board member constitutes a quorum, that perspective shouldn't be seen as legally binding.
“When you look at the text of the Federal Credit Union Act, it is not as specific. There is a lot of gray area here,” Bruyere told CUToday.info. “Therefore, if Chairman Hauptman were to take any regulatory actions on his own, as a sole board member, and a legal challenge followed, the outcome would be uncertain.”