House Members Ask Conferees to Drop Military Bank Provision
Lawmakers attempt to fix a drafting error that penalizes credit unions located on military bases.
A bipartisan group of House members is urging conferees on the annual defense authorization bill to drop a provision that could eliminate the free rent benefit that credit unions receive on military bases.
House and Senate members are meeting in an attempt to resolve differences between their versions of the massive annual defense bill.
A drafting error in the House bill, that was designed to give banks and credit unions parity on military bases, instead would provide banks with the benefit but would eliminate free rent for credit unions.
The deal with associations representing military banks and military credit unions would have settled a longstanding battle between financial institutions over a provision of federal law that currently allows military officials to offer free rent to credit unions if 95% of the members served by the branch are members of the military.
Banks have long sought that benefit.
The House bill would provide the rent benefit to “insured depository institutions,” a definition that does not include credit unions. The Senate bill does not address the issue at all, meaning that credit unions still would receive the rent benefit and banks would not.
“Credit unions provide a valuable service in meeting the needs of our servicemen and women,” Democratic Reps. Jackie Speier and John Garamendi of California, and Republicans Ed Royce and Paul Cook, also of California said, in their letter.
The four members simply ask the conferees on the bill to ensure that the House provision is not included in the conference report on the bill.