But the amount of unfinished business left over from 2019 is staggering. And since 2019 was only the first year of the current Congress, legislation that was left undone last year may still be considered on Capitol Hill.

So, let's look at some of the leftovers, in no particular order.

Marijuana Banking

Last year was quite an accomplishment for proponents of marijuana banking, but by the end of the year, the issue still wasn't resolved.

The House passed its bill and Senate Banking Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) said he was somewhat optimistic that the Senate might be able to mark up a bill by the end of the year.

Didn't happen.

By the end of the year, Crapo had issued a long list of concerns he has about the legislation. His concerns were many and difficult to address.

He made it clear he's opposed to the House bill, which means his committee would have to approve a measure and the Senate would have to pass it.

Then, differences between the House and Senate would need to be reconciled before the conference report could go to the floor in each House.

That's an awful lot to accomplish this year.

NCUA Issues

For the first time in several years, there's a three-member NCUA board, but it's easy to forget that the term of Republican member J. Mark McWatters has expired.

He's simply serving until President Trump nominates a successor and the Senate confirms that candidate.

With the election approaching, Trump may want to leave his imprint on the board by nominating someone soon so that if he loses, his candidate is already on the board.

And speaking of that three-member board, by the end of 2019, it looked like there was a growing divisiveness among its members.

Democratic member Todd Harper indicated he had tried to negotiate a compromise with Chairman Rodney Hood over Harper's proposal to add three staff members to the agency for consumer protection.

He added that those negotiations had broken down.

McWatters indicated he was inclined to vote with Harper to defeat the budget, but said passage of the budget was more important, so he voted for it.

Last year, Hood had said the agency would consider proposed rules governing subordinated debt and credit union-bank mergers by the end of the year.

That didn't happen. McWatters said he has been promised a rule on subordinated debt early this year, but there was no further discussion of the banking proposal.

Since it's an independent agency, the election may not have as large of an impact on the board, but there are still a lot of question marks out there as to whether the board can function as a well-oiled machine.

CFPB Issues

It seems like every year, the number of outstanding issues at the agency is daunting.

This year is no exception.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in March on whether the agency's structure is constitutional.

Depending on what the court decides, the agency could be thrown into even more chaos. If the structure is found to be unconstitutional, what happens next?

Does the court say it's up to Congress to resolve the issue?

And how does the agency function until then?

The CFPB has a ton of outstanding issues waiting to be resolved.

Director Kathy Kraninger has promised she will issue the final payday lending rule this spring. The agency seems to be headed toward gutting the strict payday lending rule issued by former Director Richard Cordray, but the devil will be in the details.

The agency also has debt collection rules to consider.

The agency issued a proposed rule last year and just about everybody hated it. Consumer groups said it could still lead to harassment of debtors. And the debt collection industry said it was not given enough freedom to try to collect debts.

Given the number of comments filed on this one, it might be a while before we see final rules.

Then, there's UDAAP. What exactly constitutes an abusive act or practice has never been well defined. Former agency acting Director Mick Mulvaney and Kraninger have promised some guidance or rule defining it. The agency even held a symposium on the issue.

But as 2019 ended, it was still hanging out there.

Bank-Credit Union Issues

As the year ended, the sniping between banks and credit unions appeared to be escalating once again.

The Independent Community Bankers of America had begun a high-profile "Wake Up" campaign designed to remind everybody of the evils of tax-exempt credit unions.

And some House Republicans had begun discussing some of the group's talking points on credit unions' purchases of banks.

In December, the credit union industry had a couple of large victories. The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia declined to hear the American Bankers Association's challenge of the NCUA's Field of Membership rule.

This issue could be headed for the Supreme Court.

And second, Congress decided not to provide banks with the same free rent benefits on military bases that credit unions now receive.

Despite those victories, or maybe because of them, banking and credit union trade groups don't appear to be ready to bury the hatchet anywhere besides in each other's backs.

Congress

As usual, the list of issues that Congress has attempted to resolve but hasn't remains long.

At the end of the year, the House and Senate passed the 14th extension of the National Flood Insurance Program. At least this time, they didn't pass a one-month extension.

This one lasts until Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. Members of the two congressional committees handling the issue have been working on long-term fixes for the program, so that deadline should give them time to enact a comprehensive bill, right?

Probably not.

We've already dealt with marijuana banking, but the House Financial Services Committee also has approved dozens of bills that likely will die before the Senate ever considers them.

For instance, remember Chairwoman Maxine Waters' (D-Calif.) proposal to re-invigorate the CFPB after Mulvaney and Kraninger made the agency more pro-business?

Didn't think so.

And then Congress will have the perennial issues, like funding the government. Fortunately, the NCUA is funded by credit unions, not taxpayers, so any funding uncertainty won't hit the agency hard.

Is that list long enough for you? There probably are more, but I'm just about out of space here and if you've read this far, your nerves may be too frayed to continuing reading anyway.

Suffice it to say, buckle up. It's gonna be a bumpy ride.

David Baumann

David Baumann is a correspondent-at-large for CU Times. He can be reached at [email protected].