Newsroom

The sudden adjournment of the House early Thursday after a more-than-24-hour sit-in by House Democrats seeking to force votes on gun control delays any vote on a fiscal 2017 spending bill containing a handful of NAFCU-sought regulatory relief provisions until after the July 4 recess.

The bill includes $250 million for the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund and $2 million for NCUA's Community Development Revolving Loan Fund. It also includes funding for the Small Business Administration, including its 7(a) and 504 loan programs. Through these programs, credit unions are better able to provide capital to small businesses and support local economic growth in low-income communities.

Also in the appropriation bill are NAFCU-sought provisions subjecting CFPB funding to congressional oversight and moving the bureau from a sole director to a five-person commission.

NAFCU was the only credit union trade association to oppose subjecting credit unions to CFPB authority under Dodd-Frank. The association also maintains that CFPB should be using its current Dodd-Frank Act authority to exempt credit unions from regulations aimed at bad actors.

Included in language in the committee report that accompanies the bill is a NAFCU-supported call for CFPB to do more to provide exemptions for credit unions under its authority in Section 1022 of the Dodd-Frank Act. The bureau would need to report back to Congress on action taken, any review of previous exemptions and plans for this authority in the future.

The report language with the bill also "strongly encourages" the Federal Communications Commission to revisit its recent Telephone Consumer Protection Act order to address questions and issues raised by financial institutions – action supported by NAFCU. The language also calls for the FCC to "provide more flexibility to the prescriptive requirements for financial institutions" using the exemption for "free end user calls."

NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler urged House leaders Wednesday to retain these NAFCU-sought provisions – found in the text and accompanying report language for the spending bill. All members of the House also received Thaler's letter.