Credit unions are uniquely positioned at the heart of their communities. As member-owned, not-for-profit institutions, credit unions cultivate and maintain special relationships with their members. They know their names and are often entrusted with very personal details about their members' financial lives. Therefore, credit unions know what their members need from their elected officials, and in this election year, that information is pure gold.
Any candidate running for office in 2016 should value the input they get from their local credit union. The credit union's members are the voters who will decide whether a candidate joins or returns to Congress in 2017. For that reason, it is critical that credit unions share their members' stories and their needs so that if elected, those individuals will be ready and committed to fighting for the best interests of their local community financial institutions.
One simple way a credit union can share its story is to invite candidates (and current lawmakers) to visit the credit union. Give a tour; explain the credit union's operations and its challenges and successes. Have the candidate meet the staff and allow them to share why they are running and how they will work to ensure the well-being of the credit union and its members.
These do not have to be formal meetings. Any face-to-face time will go a long way toward ensuring that a current lawmaker, or candidate, knows how their actions affect, and will affect, their constituents.
Given that this is an election year, lawmakers are spending more time in their home district or state, and that creates more opportunities for credit unions to meet one-on-one with them.
The political affairs team I lead at NAFCU works with association members to ensure they are connecting with their members of Congress and candidates. NAFCU is happy to assist in coordinating meetings with lawmakers while they are in their home district or state. There are numerous opportunities ahead; throughout the rest of the year, lawmakers are scheduled to be in their district offices on the following dates:
- Feb. 15-19;
- March 28-April 1;
- May 2-6;
- May 30-June 3;
- July 18-Sept. 2;
- Oct. 10-Nov. 11;
- Nov. 21-25; and
- Dec. 19-23.
As credit unions reach out to their lawmakers and candidates this year, NAFCU is continuing its own work in Washington to advance regulatory relief for credit unions.
Several of the relief measures we are pushing are contained in the Senate Banking Committee-approved "Financial Regulatory Improvement Act" (S. 1484). Key credit union provisions include:
- a requirement that NCUA hold public budget hearings;
- exam fairness and an independent appeals process for financial institutions;
- relief from CFPB's qualified mortgage requirements; and
- a qualified mortgage safe harbor from liability under the TILA-RESPA integrated mortgage rules.
Many of the concepts found in S. 1484 are also reflected in a series of corresponding bills that have been marked up and passed by the House Financial Services Committee.
The association also continues to pursue passage of the "Data Security Act of 2015" (H.R. 2205/S.961). Although credit unions are held to specific, stringent data security standards under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, merchants are not; we need to correct this.
To that end, NAFCU is pushing Congress to hold merchants to standards similar to those applied to financial institutions for the safekeeping of consumers' personally identifiable information. We also believe merchants should be accountable for data breaches that occur on their end.
The association remains focused on other key issues, among them: protecting credit unions' tax exemption, ensuring unfettered access to the secondary mortgage market, modernizing field-of-membership requirements, supporting legislative efforts for capital reform and increasing the arbitrary member business lending cap.
NAFCU will continue to knock on the doors of lawmakers, to meet with them and their staff and to push for more regulatory relief for credit unions, and I encourage credit unions to do the same.
NAFCU is here to serve and advocate on behalf of credit unions, and the association's staff is honored to do so each and every day. Part of that is helping credit unions use the opportunities that lawmakers' district work periods present for one-on-one meetings on the issues that matter. If you don't know where to start, just pick up the phone (dial 703-842-2237), send an email (
Dan O'Brien is director of political affairs at NAFCU.
