WASHINGTON–With the massive reconciliation bill now signed by the president, credit union attention toward Congress is now turning to new issues, including the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

As an annual must-pass piece of legislation, credit union concern has traditionally been that it would be a vehicle for carrying unrelated provisions that could affect credit unions—the NDAA and other large bills are often referred to as “Christmas trees” due to all the gifts to various interest groups that members of Congress look to attach–and that remains the case this year, with worries the Credit Card Competition Act (or provisions from that proposed bill) or a proposal limiting credit card interest rates to 10% could be tacked onto the NDAA, among other potential amendments.

Jason Stverak, chief advocacy officer with the Defense Credit Union Council, said he believes all the educational work credit unions did related to the reconciliation bill will continue to pay dividends as both sides of Congress debate the giant defense-funding bill.

As Stverak noted, the language in what’s known as the chairman’s mark, or mark-up, of the bill in the House does not include any “banking section” among its 1,000-plus pages, according to a version that was released to the press over the weekend. 

‘Grateful’ for Developments

“We were grateful to see…there was no discussion of more changes or modifications that directly impact credit unions and no impact on the tax status, no impact on the one credit union, one bank (per military base) policy and, importantly, no changes to the Federal Credit Union Act, such as providing share insurance coverage for non-members,” he said.

The latter is a reference to insuring deposits at military banks that are operated on bases by Navy Federal Credit Union. Credit unions fought back against Navy FCU when it sought to have the FCU Act amended to allow such coverage. Those deposits are currently insured by American Share Insurance of Dublin, Ohio. 

The Senate is expected to begin its work on the NDAA this week. Stverak said he has not seen a copy of the Senate text at this point. 

SchoolsFirst FCU Joins DCUC

Separately, the Defense Credit Union Council (DCUC) said California-based SchoolsFirst FCU has become its newest affiliate member.  The $34-billion SchoolsFirst FCU has more than 1.5 million members.

“We believe in the power of collaboration to better serve our members and communities,” SchoolsFirst CEO Bill Cheney said in a statement. “Joining DCUC allows us to grow that commitment to our military and veteran members, while also lending our voice to important advocacy.”

Added DCUC President and CEO Anthony Hernandez in a statement, “SchoolsFirst’s long-standing commitment to service, financial education, and community support aligns with both DCUC’s priorities and the values of our member credit unions. We’re proud to welcome them to the defense credit union community and look forward to working together to advance financial well-being for both educators and the brave men and women of our armed forces and their families.”