By Frank J. Diekmann
Maybe GAC should no longer be an abbreviation for Governmental Affairs Conference and instead stand for “Go About Complaining.” And then go home.
The biggest meeting of the year for credit unions kicks off this week in the Washington Convention Center with a big crowd, big band, big budget—and small expectations. It is in many ways a microcosm of what most Americans have come to expect out of the nation’s capital.
Don’t get me wrong, CUNA does a fine job putting on the meeting and all its related logistics, from scheduling busses to scheduling congressmen with bus-sized egos, and even though the House is at recess while credit unions are in town, enough people will Hike the (slushy) Hill to leave a reminder that the credit union lobby is a formidable one. And then everyone will do it all over again a year from now.
There will be plenty of complaining, as there should be, because when you think about it our entire foundation as a country and a system of government is based on complaining. So credit unions will complain about the regulatory burden (and with good reason), the CFPB, cyber-attacks, data breaches, the weather (warmer than expected/colder than expected) and more, each of which is a perfectly legitimate gripe that deserves attention.
But here’s the rub—despite the complaining and the legitimacy, you won’t meet anyone among the legions at GAC who actually believes Congress will do anything about any of it—including the weather. Oh, sure, various members of Congress will be applauded for having introduced some piece of legislation that promises relief, everyone seeming to forget that that it’s deja CU all over again, and that same piece of legislation was introduced in the previous Congress and perhaps the one before that, or, as is the case with the MBL cap relief bill that was just re-introduced, in the Congress before that and that and that and…
And it will be back again next year.
This year there will be much complaining about NCUA’s revised risk-based capital proposal (NAFCU CEO Dan Berger does a nice job here of summing up why, revised or not, the proposal is unnecessary), but with RBC the complaints come with a big side order irony—many people believe their complaints have been heard and acted upon, thank you very much.
That, of course, has led to a few complaints that the complainers need to keep complaining, with industry voices Chip Filson (you can read why Chip is comparing the whole thing to training fleas here) and Randy Karnes leading the charge. They will be helping to man a booth at GAC called Credit Union Voices that will be seeking to emphasize that just because you may have commented on the first risk-based capital proposal doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be commenting on the second. At that booth attendees will be able to file their comment/complaint and send it across the river to NCUA.
So that’s what awaits over the next couple of days. But, hey, I’m in the news business, so who am I to complain?
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief at CUToday.info and can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info.