Warren Bill Demonstrates CU Advocacy Success

For credit unions, we’re always ready to remind folks that our credit union mission and structure are designed to maximize our ability to uplift those unserved by traditional financial service institutions. Whether we’re advocating to preserve our tax status or calling for fair, common sense regulation, it’s the tent pole of our advocacy playbook. I recognize that, and I’m very aware that it sets us up for all sorts of jibes from those other financial institutions.

The thing is, we always talk about it because we can back it up – and lawmakers know it. While regulators talk openly about how “disappointed” they are in the nation’s biggest banks, lawmakers time and again see the way that credit unions step up to the plate to keep folks on their feet through the toughest of times, and they continue to put their faith in us.

That is no more apparent than in the bill that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) introduced in the Senate. The American Housing and Economic Mobility Act of 2019, which sets into law the policies and guidance that the NCUA has used to guide credit union home lending for over two decades, is nothing short of one of the nation’s most pro-regulation policymakers recognizing all of the amazing good that credit unions provide to historically disadvantaged and underserved communities.

What’s more, this bill is a shining example of the way that credit unions, leagues and CUNA can come together to reinforce for lawmakers what we mean when we hold up our mission and structure. Last year, when Warren first introduced a form of this bill, it was written to extend Community Reinvestment Act regulations on home lending to credit unions. While noble, these regulations – which were created to prevent banks from perpetuating their horrendous lending and redlining practices in minority and low-income communities – would only set credit unions up to fail.

That’s why CUNA and the leagues jumped into action to prevent these onerous and duplicative regulations from being forced on credit unions. We worked with the Senator’s office, and those of her co-sponsors, to show the many ways that credit unions have been fulfilling requirements to support underserved communities for decades.

This 360-degree advocacy paid off: After months of engaging with these offices, these lawmakers realized that subjecting credit unions to CRA requirements would require them to shift resources away from increasing access to responsible financial products to satisfy these additional compliance demands. They realized that this would frustrate, rather than benefit, the very borrowers they were seeking to uplift. What’s more, a House companion measure was introduced by Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) as well.

To put the cherry on top of this resounding advocacy success, Warren and Richmond’s bills were introduced just as the CUNA GAC shifted from the close of our formal programming to the start of our Hill hikes. For the more than 5,200 advocates who are leaving the nation’s biggest credit union conference to meet with lawmakers, the message couldn’t be clearer: From the phenomenal work done at their lending desk to the miles they walk here in Washington, D.C., credit union action is making all the difference in the ways we operate and the ways we continue to serve our communities. That is the credit union difference.

Ryan Donovan is Chief Advocacy Officer for CUNA. He can be reached at 202-508-6750 or rdonovan@cuna.coop.