By Jason Stverak
When Washington drifts toward a shutdown, the consequences are not theoretical for a military family. Rent is still due. Child care still has to be paid. Groceries still have to be bought. A veteran trying to launch a small business still has payroll to meet and inventory to finance. During recent shutdowns, defense credit unions did what we have always done: we stepped in with emergency loans, deferred payments, modified terms, fee waivers, and practical counseling to help active-duty members, families, and veterans get through the crisis.
That is what member-owned institutions do. We show up to serve people, not quarterly earnings.
That is why, as the armed services committees begin to work in earnest on the FY2027 National Defense Authorization Act, I urge them to keep military financial readiness front and center. Defense credit unions serve more than 40 million members through more than 200 institutions, and our institutions operate on more than 300 installations worldwide. In many military communities, and on some installations, a defense credit union is the only regulated financial institution with a direct daily presence. We are not-for-profit cooperatives, governed by the people we serve, and that structure matters because it means our mission is aligned with servicemembers, veterans, and military families from the start.
Step One: Create Formal Advisory Structure
The first priority is one I believe is long overdue: Congress should establish a formal advisory structure on military financial services inside the Department of War or direct the Department to stand up a substantially similar working group now. The Defense Credit Union Council (DCUC) has made this case in NDAA letters, in public correspondence tied to Secretary Hegseth, and in the recent House budget-hearing record. Too many decisions affecting military banking access, financial readiness delivery, on-base services, and the broader Military Banking Program are still made without a durable process for hearing from the institutions that serve these communities every day. A real advisory mechanism would improve transparency, modernize policy, and make sure installation-level realities are heard before Washington imposes another fragmented fix.
Step Two: Permanently Enhance the CLF
Second, Congress should include permanent enhancements to the National Credit Union Administration Central Liquidity Facility. The CLF exists because credit unions need a dependable liquidity backstop, the same basic way banks rely on the discount window. During the pandemic, temporary authority allowing corporate credit unions to act as agents dramatically expanded access; DCUC notes that participation rose from 283 credit unions to more than 4,100, and the NCUA’s own inspector general later found that when the temporary authority expired, 3,322 smaller credit unions lost access and facility capacity fell by nearly $10 billion. Congress should restore that access permanently through the bipartisan CLF reforms championed by Sens. Alex Padilla and Kevin Cramer. If we expect defense credit unions to keep lending during stress, we cannot leave their liquidity backstop half-built.
Step Three: Add Loan-Maturity Flexibility
Third, the NDAA should include loan-maturity flexibility for credit unions. Current law still caps many federal credit union loans at 15 years, an outdated limit that does not reflect how families borrow, how communities build housing, or how veterans and small businesses finance long-term growth. DCUC’s public letters make this concrete: longer maturities can lower monthly payments, give families more breathing room, and help a military household finance a future home before retirement or transition.
This is especially important in and around military communities, where frequent moves, rising housing costs, and uneven local inventories already make financial planning hard enough. Sensible loan-term flexibility is not mission creep; it is common sense.
Step Four: Modernize Board Requirements
Fourth, Congress should modernize credit union board requirements. Today, federal credit union boards generally meet every month, regardless of the institution’s size, complexity, or risk profile. DCUC has rightly argued that this requirement is outdated, especially because so many credit union directors are unpaid volunteers, including veterans and community leaders, who are trying to devote time to oversight, strategy, and member service rather than unnecessary procedural mandates.
The board modernization reform would still preserve stronger requirements for de novo and higher-risk institutions, but it would let well-managed credit unions focus more energy on serving members and less on checking an old statutory box.
Step Five: Advance Veterans MBL Act
Fifth, and just as important, Congress should advance the Veterans Member Business Loan Act. This priority captures exactly what defense credit unions are about: helping those who served build a stronger civilian future. Working in partnership with The American Legion, DCUC has urged Congress to remove the outdated barrier that prevents credit unions from fully serving veteran entrepreneurs. The reform is targeted and practical: it would exempt loans to veteran-owned businesses from the existing member-business-lending cap while preserving safety-and-soundness standards. It does not create a new federal spending program.
It simply lets mission-driven lenders use their own capital to say “yes” more often to qualified veterans. That matters. America’s veteran-owned businesses already support millions of jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars in annual revenue, yet too many veterans still run into financing barriers when they come home ready to build. They should not hear, “We would help, but the law says our hands are tied.”
The Last Step: Reject Efforts to Rewrite the FCU Act
Finally, Congress should continue to reject any effort to rewrite the Federal Credit Union Act so share insurance covers non-members. DCUC has been clear on this point, and it is right to be clear. Credit unions are cooperative institutions organized to serve defined fields of membership. The share insurance fund exists to protect those members, and it is funded accordingly.
Extending that protection to non-members would blur the distinction between member-owned cooperatives and for-profit banks, introduce unnecessary safety-and-soundness risk, and weaken the very structure that makes defense credit unions such trusted partners to military families. The NDAA should strengthen mission-driven service, not open the door to unrelated changes that erode it.
As the committees begin their work in earnest, I hope they remember what defense credit unions proved during recent shutdowns: when military families were under pressure, we did not disappear, and we did not ask whether helping was convenient. We absorbed risk, extended grace, and kept people afloat because that is our mission.
Now, Congress should do its part. Put military financial readiness where it belongs in the FY2027 NDAA by establishing a military financial services advisory structure at DoW, strengthening the CLF, modernizing loan terms and board rules, advancing Vets MBL, and keeping non-member share insurance out of the bill.
Those are practical, mission-focused steps that would help the institutions that help the people who serve this country.
Jason Stverak is chief advocacy officer with the Defense Credit Union Council.
