“One senator even remarked on how refreshing it was to hear banks and credit unions on the same side of an important issue. When that happens, you know it is important,” he told CU Times. “This includes some of the areas that the CFPB is proposing to issue new rules as well. At some point, the burden of all these regulations, however well intentioned, will capsize some financial institutions.”

Schmidt said he would like to discuss a Nevada state law for super priority liens with Nevada's representatives in Congress.

“The proposed CECL model has the potential to have a major impact on all financial institutions and certainly with smaller ones in particular. I am not certain that Congress has any ability to influence the process since this is really an accounting matter,” he said.

“However, I think it is important that they are aware of this and how it may impact credit unions large and small and our ability to serve our members. In conjunction with the existing and proposed rules/regulations, it is becoming a very challenging environment for small financial institutions,” he added.

Donovan said field of membership is an issue CUNA is currently trying to address with the NCUA rather than with Congress. Robin Lentz, president/CEO of $213 million Cabrillo Credit Union in San Diego, Calif., said FOM was an important issue for her cooperative.

“Fields of membership is a delicate balance. You don't want to encroach on other credit unions, but the current limitations, especially given the advances in technology, really limits the choice for consumers. Our credit union was established in 1955 to serve Border Patrol agents in San Diego,” she said.

“A lot has changed in 60 years where we can serve the same membership on a much broader scale thanks to technology. Mobile deposit, online banking, shared branching and ATM networks make the credit union so much more accessible to potential members everywhere,” Lentz added.

During the Hike the Hill portion of GAC, Donovan said CUNA's members must emphasize that credit unions are fulfilling the mission that Congress provided them.

“As a result of credit unions being in the marketplace, consumers benefit significantly to the tune of nearly $10 billion per year. If Congress engages in comprehensive tax reform, the credit union tax status represents a strong investment in American consumers. It's something that needs to be preserved,” he said.

Some have referred to 2014 as the year of the breach, but CUNA said it wants to make sure it does not turn into the decade of the breach.

“The message for Congress is we need a strong federal data security bill that has protections and consumer notification standards with effective enforcement provisions. We want to make sure that everyone in the payment system, whether they are issuing cards or accepting cards for payment, are playing by the same set of rules. Right now that's not the case.”

Merchants are not required to follow Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act standards. CUNA would like to have provisions included in data security legislation that make it easier for credit unions and banks to notify their members and customers when and where the incident occurred. Donovan said there's a reputational risk associated with credit unions informing members their card was compromised, but not being able to explain where or how it happened.

“Those standards should be extended to those that accept cards for payments,” he said. “It needs to be a national standard. We're advocating for legislation that is strong and would be pre-emptive of state law.”

CUNA would also like to see the cost of reimbursements expedited as well.

“We're now 15 months from the Target breach and not one credit union has received a penny in terms of reimbursement from their costs. The process is too slow and it can be expedited, so we're going to press that issue in meetings with Congress,” he said.

Donovan said he anticipates the Senate will introduce data security legislation in March, so meetings with lawmakers on the issue are timely.

According to CUNA, there will be 5,000 attendees at this year's GAC including credit union leaders, volunteers, vendor partners, league staff, speakers and guests.

“Our stop the data breach message will be pretty well received and we're counting on credit unions to come and talk about how they've been impacted by the major breaches. And also local breaches, because we know there are breaches that happen every day at smaller retailers. Those have an impact on credit unions too,” Donovan said.

CUNA has encouraged credit unions to speak about the theme of removing barriers in meetings with lawmakers. Under the removing barriers theme, CUNA includes the Eliminate Privacy Notice Confusion Act, which would eliminate the requirement for privacy notices to be sent annually unless there is a change to the policy as well as member business lending and supplemental capital legislation.

The Credit Union Small Business Jobs Creation Act would raise the credit union member business loan cap from 12.25% to 27.5% of assets for eligible institutions.

The Capital Access for Small Business Act would allow the NCUA board to permit credit unions to accept supplemental capital, as long as it does not alter the cooperative ownership structure.

Donovan pointed out that the NCUA has said it supports supplemental capital legislation and the agency's risk-based capital proposal could help move the issue forward in Congress.

Each bill has been introduced in the House. Similar versions were introduced in previous sessions of Congress but did not pass.

“We want to get them over to the Senate and work the process there,” he said.

John McKechnie, partner at Washington-based consulting firm Total Spectrum, said the member business lending and supplemental capital bills face some strategic and political challenges.

“The dynamic surrounding credit union reg relief items remains difficult – anything credit unions try to do to update their ability to serve the marketplace is immediately tagged as a 'third rail' by the bank lobby,” McKechnie, former NCUA director of public and congressional affairs, said.

“It will take some real effort, and some real skill, to get our items included in broader reg relief. But if credit unions stay focused and engaged in the process good things can happen. On merit credit unions win; the challenge will be to also win on the politics,” McKechnie added.

CUNA is seeking to get a bill introduced that addresses a Federal Housing Financing Agency proposal, which requires Federal Home Loan Bank members to keep 10% of their assets in residential mortgages.

Under the law, banks under $1 billion in assets are exempt from that requirement but the same treatment is not given to credit unions.

“We are planning to seek parity from Congress on that issue,” Donovan said.

CUNA has renewed its support for changing the CFPB's leadership to a commission rather than a director and funding the agency through the appropriations process to make sure there is greater oversight.

“I anticipate that a good deal of our meetings on the hill are going to involve credit union executives and volunteers talking to members of Congress and their staff about how the regulations coming from the CFPB have impacted their ability to serve their members,” Donovan said. “A key point we will renew in our meetings is this notion that if the rules coming out of the CFPB mean that credit unions are providing less service or that service is more expensive, from our perspective those rules have failed.”

Donovan cited the CFPB's remittance rule as an example and noted the number of credit unions offering remittances has decreased.

“The price that's charged for those services has increased,” he said. “To find those services, credit unions are artificially reducing the number of remittances that they do because of the regulation and consumers lose in that scenario because they are forced to go to other money transfer services that cost more than they could get at a credit union.”

There are some other issues that CUNA will address at GAC that have not developed into legislation yet.

“The maturity limits on loans in the Federal Credit Union Act ought to be eliminated. There are more than 40 states where state chartered credit unions are not subject to any statutory limits on loan maturity. We think this is a small but important step in the course of modernizing the Federal Credit Union Act,” Donovan said.

“We also have called on Congress to expand credit union investment authority so we'll be discussing that with the leaders of the committees in Congress about introducing legislation in this session,” he added.