Capital’s ‘Uncertainty’ Poses Challenges: CUNA’s Donovan

The start of any new Congress brings uncertainty to our nation’s capital, but the 116th Congress begins with an even higher number of question marks than many, Ryan Donovan, CUNA’s chief advocacy officer, said.

Asked what the biggest challenge CUNA faces as the new year and new Congress begins, Donovan said it’s “the unknown and the unpredictability” of what’s likely to happen in our nation’s capital.

“It’s been a while since we had a divided Congress,” Donovan said as he outlined the trade group’s priorities for the coming year.

The 116th Congress began Thursday as new members of the House and Senate were sworn in. The dynamic on Capitol Hill is new: Democrats control the House and Republicans control the Senate.

And on the other end of Capitol Hill sits Donald Trump, who is less predictable than any president in recent memory.

It remains to be seen if anyone can find common ground on anything, Donovan said.

The CUNA advocacy agenda continues the push to make the NCUA the only agency supervising credit unions – eliminating the CFPB from the regulatory mix. CUNA will also continue its focus on allowing credit unions to raise supplemental capital and ask Congress once again to update the Federal Credit Union Act.

And Congress must once again try to find common ground on the issue of data privacy, Donovan said. He added that Congress should “get ahead” of a California state law that comes into effect next year.

That law gives consumers more information about what the data companies are collecting about them and makes it easier for consumers to sue when data breaches occur.

Donovan said he does not expect a serious effort will be made to revoke the federal tax exemption credit unions now have,

“Congress just completed comprehensive tax reform,” he said, adding that no member tried to amend the tax bills to revoke the tax exemption.

And former Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who raised the issue last year, has retired.

“The environment suggests that it’s not a high probability,” he said.

On the other hand, he added, he expects fights in state capitals to revoke the state tax exemptions for credit unions.

CUNA views the emergence of Kathy Kraninger as CFPB director to be a tremendous opportunity. “We want to make sure she understands what credit unions are,” he said.

There is a slew of new members and staff in Congress, all of whom must be brought up to speed on what credit unions do and the difference between banks and the cooperatives.

“The education process began well before the election,” Donovan said, citing the millions of dollars in campaign contributions that CUNA made to congressional candidates.

And since the election, CUNA staff has taken every opportunity to meet new members, he said. That effort will intensify as credit unions officials visit Washington March 10 to 14 for the group’s annual Governmental Affairs Conference.

Donovan said that CUNA’s awareness campaign, “Open Your Eyes to a Credit Union” will operate separately from the trade group’s advocacy efforts. Nonetheless, he said, they complement each other.

“The more awareness there is … the stronger our advocacy efforts are,” he said.