WASHINGTON — Regulators and lobbyists are racing to get a renewal of the temporary increase in an emergency loan fund for credit unions.
On March 6, the 11-year-old Central Liquidity Facility is scheduled to return to its nominal $1.5 billion limit, from the $40.5 billion ceiling that Congress approved on an emergency basis in September.
Such a reduction would be problematic for the National Credit Union Administration, which has committed more than $15 billion through the facility since then.
A spokesman for the NCUA said the agency is working with Congress to extend the higher funding limit.
Ryan Donovan, a senior lobbyist at the Credit Union National Association, said the trade group hopes such an extension will be attached to the omnibus appropriations bill that is almost sure to pass by the expiration date. "The time period is short" to do so, he said.
With Congress out of town this week, the House and Senate have less than two weeks to pass the bill that funds the government's operations and send it to President Obama for his signature, Mr. Donovan said.
The facility, which went almost unused for a decade, has become the focal point of the NCUA's efforts to sustain troubled credit unions.
