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President Donald Trump on Monday signed the fiscal year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). NAFCU efforts led House and Senate conferees to drop a provision that would have required the Department of Defense (DoD) to allow all banks to operate rent free on military installations, disadvantaging credit unions.

"We thank congressional leaders for passing the NDAA with this NAFCU-sought change," said NAFCU Executive Vice President of Government Affairs and General Counsel Carrie Hunt. "Credit unions have played an important role in helping our military men and women gain access to needed financial services, and we are pleased that this will continue to be the case."  

The free-rent-for-banks provision was included in the initial House-passed version of the NDAA, but not the Senate's. NAFCU led the effort in working with conferees to ensure that the final conference report did not include the provision and disadvantage credit unions.

Credit unions have nominal lease space in federal buildings and on military bases from a NAFCU-sought provision in the Federal Credit Union Act. Although the NDAA provision would not have changed that, erroneous news reports created confusion among some in the industry.

NAFCU was also concerned that the provision could disadvantage credit unions because it did not contain some of the regulatory restrictions that they have with their nominal leases.

The final NDAA conference report does include the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) legislation; however, the adopted version does not include language to delay the NCUA's risk-based capital (RBC) rule. NAFCU efforts have led to the RBC-delay provision's inclusion in two other bills that are still moving through Congress. Earlier this month, the NCUA Board proposed a one-year delay of the rule and a change in the definition of a complex credit union from $100 million to $500 million.