As the ongoing Columbia saga has continued to play itself out, NCUA's voice in the situation has been particularly silent. That's because the agency still struggles to come up with a final decision on whether to approve Columbia's vote. Faced with a deadline for making a decision earlier and a series of complaints from some of Columbia's members, the agency disapproved the credit union's ballot back in December 2003, pending the results of its investigation into the case. Since then the Vancouver area's bad weather and the need to go back to revisit the credit union have stalled the agency's fact finding. Cliff Northup, NCUA's Director of Public and Congressional Affairs, explained in early January that the need to revisit the credit union would postpone the agency's decision in the matter until the week of January 12, at the earliest.