In his Aug. 8, 2016 article in CU Times entitled, “Trump's Proposed Rules Moratorium Unlikely to Hit NCUA,” David Baumann left the impression that credit unions would not benefit from any such moratorium should Donald Trump be elected president.
Mr. Baumann correctly points out that since the NCUA is an independent agency, it would not be subject to or mandated to comply with any executive order issued by a president. He quotes Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen, “Presidential executive orders are not binding on independent regulatory agencies.” Mr. Holman is quick to add, “However, executive orders frequently have been issued to independent regulatory agencies asking for their compliance.” That last statement is the reality of any executive order.
Regardless of who is elected president, Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, you can be assured that if either one should issue an executive order to all federal agencies, they would expect compliance even from those that have been anointed as being “independent.”
The intent of Congress when classifying agencies like the NCUA and the CFPB as independent might have been to try and to keep political influence out of their operations. But in the real world that is next to impossible.
It's not that appointees to independent agencies are expected to have their own agenda and operate without the influence of the executive office. The simple fact is that these people are appointed by the president and regardless of party affiliation, owe him or her allegiance and loyalty to put in place the overall plan the president has for the federal government.
So regardless of what the law may imply, credit unions and other financial services institutions can expect the positions, programs and directives of the president to filter down to all federal agencies, independent or not.
Michael Fryzel is a Chicago-based attorney and former chairman of the NCUA board. He can be reached at [email protected].
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