The top Democrat on the House Financial Service Committee told the National Association of Federal Credit Unions Congressional Caucus that she would consider legislation to clarify that credit unions should have greater exemptions from rulemaking by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“I’m going to take a look at this issue in January, and if legislation is needed to clarify, I will take up that issue,” she told the group. “I don’t mind doing that because of who you are and the services you provide to our country.”
The move would require changing Section 1021(b)(4), which CFPB Director Richard Cordray has cited in explaining why the bureau will not issue blanket exemptions to credit unions during rulemaking. That section currently says, “Federal consumer financial law is enforced consistently, without regard to the status of a person as a depository institution, in order to promote fair competition.”
Changing language in the Dodd-Frank Act has been a nonstarter for Democrats in the House and Senate, particularly since the end of 2015, which Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others railed on an amendment that partial repealed language surrounding swaps regulations – a change which Warren and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) put at $10 trillion.
So having Waters come out publicly in support of altering the language was greeted well by NAFCU.
“NAFCU thanks Ranking Member Waters for her support of credit unions’ exemption from certain CFPB rulemakings,” NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler said in a story posted on the association’s site. “She understands that credit unions provide a huge service to the American economy and the nation’s small businesses and that, with relief from overly burdensome rules, they could do much more.”
Waters also noted that despite banks – big and small – claiming that credit unions received an unfair advantage from their tax-exempt status, Congress will never take away their tax exemption, she said. Doing that “would be like giving up apple pie,” she said.
She also gave her support for raising the member business lending cap for credit unions, a proposed rulemaking .
“We need to make it clear to anyone who will listen that credit unions are a service-driven alternative to profit-driven institutions,” she said.