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The House Tuesday passed its version of the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). As the bill moved through the House Armed Services Committee and chamber, NAFCU's award-winning advocacy team successfully kept out of the bill a provision that could harm credit unions when it comes to nominal leases on military bases and got an amendment added to make reforms to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/anti-money laundering (AML) regime.

The bipartisan COUNTER Act and Corporate Transparency Act – which includes BSA/AML reforms and creates a beneficial ownership registry – was added as an amendment to the House version of the NDAA Monday evening.

Earlier in the day, NAFCU – independently and in a joint trades letter with nine other organizations – wrote in support of adding the language in order to modernize the BSA/AML system and make needed improvements.

Also in NAFCU's letter, the association reiterated its concerns with a provision included in the Senate version of the FY2021 NDAA that would require the Department of Defense to treat all banks, including large ones like Wells Fargo, the same as a military installation's local not-for-profit defense credit union when it comes to rent on military bases. NAFCU thanked the House for not including this provision in its bill, and urged lawmakers to reject it when the two chambers form a conference committee to hash out disparities in the NDAA.

The Senate continues to work through amendments for its FY2021 NDAA. NAFCU had urged the chamber to also include bipartisan BSA/AML reforms and continues to push for the removal of the nominal lease provision.

NAFCU has consistently advocated against this bank-sought provision in the NDAA and successfully kept it from being included in a final version of the bill last year, despite it being included in the initial Senate-version of the measure. NAFCU's advocacy on this issue begins early each year – prior to the Senate Armed Services Committee and House Armed Services Committee markups of their respective bills – to keep credit unions' concerns top of mind and also encourages credit unions to use the association's Grassroots Action Center to send messages directly to lawmakers.

The association has also partnered with the Defense Credit Union Council (DCUC) and CUNA to voice credit unions' opposition against the inclusion of this provision.