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NAFCU's Regulatory and Legislative Committees Wednesday held a joint meeting to discuss what credit unions can expect in the upcoming year as Washington prepares to welcome new lawmakers, and a number of industry issues, including items Congress could tackle before the end of the year.

During the meeting, NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler and Director of Regulatory Affairs Ann Kossachev gave a post-election analysis of the current legislative and regulatory outlooks as well as the elections' impact on existing and future rulemakings that could impact credit unions.

Thaler also discussed the pending nomination of Kyle Hauptman to serve on the NCUA Board. Of note, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell filed cloture on the nomination Wednesday evening. The Senate is expected to vote to confirm Hauptman in December.

In regards to Congress' ongoing lame duck session, members of NAFCU's legislative affairs team shared the association's advocacy efforts on key credit union issues, including:

• Government funding: After passing a continuing resolution to keep the government funded through Dec. 11, Congress is expected to continue spending discussions after next week's election. While the House has passed its fiscal year 2021 spending measures, the Senate has not. NAFCU will continue to advocate for full funding for credit priorities and caution against House-passed provisions the association is opposed to, such as a pilot postal banking program.
• Defense credit union leases: Another provision of the NDAA NAFCU is engaged on where credit unions have bipartisan support: Rejecting the bank-sought provision – included in the Senate's NDAA but not the House's – that would require the Department of Defense (DoD) to treat banks, including big ones like Wells Fargo and Bank of America, the same as credit unions when it comes to nominal leases on military bases. This provision was also included in the Senate's NDAA last year, but NAFCU successfully kept it from being included in a final version of the bill that resulted from the conference committee.
• Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/anti-money laundering (AML) and beneficial ownership reform: NAFCU joined with dozens of other organizations recently to urge leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees to include BSA/AML and beneficial ownership reforms in the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The groups specifically called for the inclusion of the Corporate Transparency Act – included in the House-passed NDAA – which would create a beneficial ownership registry.

Additionally, NAFCU's Senior Regulatory Counsel Elizabeth LaBerge detailed how the passage of California's Proposition 24 could have an impact on broader privacy legislation. The proposition amends the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to create the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), expanding the CCPA to more closely align with the rights and obligations of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. LaBerge highlighted the CPRA in a previous post on the Compliance Blog.

Kaley Schafer, NAFCU's senior regulatory affairs counsel, gave an update on the current marijuana banking landscape noting that Montana, Arizona, New Jersey, and South Dakota passed marijuana-related ballot measures this month. Earlier this year, Schafer also provided an update via a post on the Compliance Blog.

The group also highlighted a number of proposed rules currently open for comment from the NCUA, CFPB and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

NAFCU's Regulatory Committee will next meet Dec. 8; There will be no Legislative Committee meeting in December.