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September 24, 2013

NAFCU highlighting CU readiness for shutdown

If lawmakers come to an agreement on some kind of federal government funding past Sept. 30, then worries of a federal government shutdown can at least be put on hold, but NAFCU is highlighting credit unions' preparation for the potential impact on their members.

QuincyEnoch-webQuincy Enoch

As part of that effort, NAFCU Associate Director of Legislative Affairs and Military Liaison Quincy Enoch reached out to defense credit unions Tuesday, asking them for information about their programs for helping affected servicemembers and civilian military employees in the event this fiscal year closes without some kind of funding deal in place.

The goal is to have information that can be shared throughout the defense community about the help available from credit unions.

"We would like to make this information available to the service branches and military support organizations so that they have it available should they be contacted by servicemembers seeking assistance," Enoch wrote in an email Tuesday to defense credit unions.

Enoch credited the many defense credit unions which came forward with programs in the run-up to the possible government shutdown in 2011, which included such procedures as "offering to defer payments on existing loans, extending extremely low cost loans and even funding servicemembers' pay until the shutdown was resolved."

Enoch also encouraged credit unions to post information about such programs on their websites for members to see.

The House last week passed a Republican-backed, short-term continuing resolution to fund federal government operations through Dec. 15, but it also includes a couple measures – defunding of "Obamacare" and continued sequestration – that met resistance.

The bill is expected to be altered in the Democratic-majority Senate, which will likely remove the language defunding the Affordable Care Act. The current continuing resolution funding the government is set to expire on Sept. 30, meaning a shutdown may begin as early as Oct. 1.