WASHINGTON — The Senate Banking Committee has scheduled a hearing for this Wednesday on the nomination of former NCUA Board Deborah Matz to return to the agency as its chairman.
The Democrat is widely expected to be endorsed by the banking panel and confirmed by the full Senate, swinging control of the three-member NCUA Board to the Democrats for the first time in eight years. Her confirmation would create a Democratic majority on the board. Republican Michael Fryzel, who has served as chairman of the board since last August, would no longer be chairman but would remain on the board.
One of the potential sticking points for her nomination is a stipulation that was inserted into HR 1151 that not more than one member of the NCUA Board can have direct CU experience. Matz, who served on the NCUA Board from 2001 to 2005, went on to be executive vice president and then interim president of Andrews FCU in Suitland, Md. That would be fine, except that current NCUA Board Member Gigi Hyland also has direct credit union experience, having worked as a corporate CU lobbyist for CUNA and as general counsel for Empire Corporate FCU (now part of Members United Corporate FCU). Though observers do not expect this stipulation to nix Matz' confirmation, it could prove problematic if the agency is challenged or sued during her tenure.
