Sen. Brown Charges Hood Comments Supporting Trump Risk NCUA Independence
The Senator wants to know who conceived of the video, and whether federal ethics officials or other members of the NCUA board were consulted before it was filmed.
NCUA Chairman Rodney Hood risked the independence of the agency by making strongly partisan public comments supporting President Trump, Senate Banking ranking Democrat Sherrod Brown of Ohio charged Wednesday.
“As Chairman of the NCUA Board, you are responsible for representing the Board and the National Credit Union Administration in its official relations with other branches of Government, not the White House, the Trump Administration, or any political campaign,” Brown said, in a letter to Hood on Wednesday.
Brown cited two incidents in his letter to Hood.
In the first, in June Hood posted on the NCUA Twitter and LinkedIn accounts a photo of himself and Trump at the Trump National Golf Club. Those posts, Brown said, thanked Trump for his economic policies and for his support for credit unions.
More recently, the White House, on Oct. 4 published on its Twitter page a video of Hood praising Trump. “I’m particularly pleased that this president has done more for African Americans than any other president in my lifetime,” Hood said, in the video.
In his letter, Brown asks Hood to produce research supporting that contention. He also asked Hood who conceived of the video, whether federal ethics officials or other members of the NCUA board were consulted before it was filmed.
“Politicizing an independent agency like the NCUA threatens our economy and puts working families at risk,” Brown said.
The NCUA has declined to comment on the video and the photo.
However, former NCUA board members were divided in their reactions to Hood’s comments.
“I don’t recall any NCUA or other regulatory agency chair ever making such overtly partisan comments,” one former board member said.
A second told the CU Times, “NCUA board positions are political appointments. Unless you know someone who has the President’s ear or someone who knows someone, you do not stand a chance of getting appointed.”