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While the House and Senate are not in session this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday, NAFCU's award-winning advocacy team is continuing to work with key lawmakers and officials to obtain more credit union relief before the end of the year. Issues NAFCU is continuing to push on: The Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) adverse market refinance fee, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), paycheck protection program (PPP), and government funding.

In addition, when Congress returns to session next week, NAFCU will be monitoring Senate action on the nomination of Kyle Hauptman to the NCUA Board. NCUA Board Member J. Mark McWatters, whom Hauptman would replace if confirmed, resigned from the board Friday; McWatters' term expired in August 2019 but had said he would serve until his replacement was confirmed. In his resignation letter, McWatters noted the Senate's expected confirmation vote on Hauptman's nomination "within the next few days."

Last week, NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger, Executive Vice President of Government Affairs and General Counsel Carrie Hunt, and Senior Regulatory Counsel Elizabeth LaBerge met with FHFA Director Dr. Mark Calabria and other key agency staff to continue to voice credit unions' concerns with the adverse market refinance fee.

NAFCU came out strong against the plan for the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) to impose a 0.5 percent fee on most mortgage refinance loans on when it was announced in August. Acknowledging industry concerns, the FHFA delayed its implementation to Dec. 1; however, NAFCU continues to argue it will hurt credit unions and their members facing financial hardships amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition, NAFCU and the FHFA discussed the agency's efforts to provide mortgage borrowers and servicers with relief during the pandemic and to reform the GSEs. The FHFA last week finalized its rule to establish capital requirements for the GSEs – a step toward removing the GSEs from conservatorship – which included some NAFCU-sought changes.

On Capitol Hill, NAFCU is:

• Monitoring the NDAA conference committee's work to reconcile the House and Senate bills. In a win for credit unions, House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who is serving on the conference committee, announced that she had secured a NAFCU-sought provision to provide Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/anti-money laundering (AML) reforms in the final bill. The language was included in the House-passed bill, but not the Senate version.
• Coordinating with the Defense Credit Union Council (DCUC) and CUNA to fight to have NDAA conferees remove the banker-sought provision that would require the Department of Defense (DoD) to treat all banks, even large ones like Wells Fargo, the same as credit unions when it comes to nominal leases on military bases. Credit unions can join the associations' advocacy by using NAFCU's Grassroots Action Center to send messages directly to lawmakers on the committee.
• Pushing for PPP improvements. The association last week joined with other trade organizations to flag concerns related to "loan necessity" questionnaires required for borrowers who received loans over $2 million and the burdensome forgiveness process.
• Advocating for full funding for credit priorities and cautioning against House-passed provisions the association is opposed to, such as a pilot postal banking program, as House and Senate appropriators continue negotiations on a 12-bill omnibus package that would provide funding for the remainder of fiscal year 2021 before the current Dec. 11 funding expiration. While there are still several issues to hash out, the White House has indicated the president would support the omnibus. Should an agreement not be reached, Congress could pass another short-term continuing resolution to prevent a government shutdown.

Stay tuned to NAFCU Today for the latest developments out of Washington.