(June 17, 2014) -- Good evening,
Below is NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler's letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Ranking Member John Conyers in conjunction with tomorrow’s markup of the "Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome (SCRUB) Act of 2014." Members of the House Judiciary Committee were copied on the letter. Attached is NAFCU's five-point plan for credit union regulatory relief.
In the letter, Thaler says this legislation would establish a commission to review federal regulations and identify those that should be repealed or amended to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens. In addition, the bill would require agencies to offset the cost of new regulations by repealing or amending regulations identified by the commission.
Thaler says NAFCU supports the intention of regulatory relief behind this draft legislation and believes it would be a good first step in addressing the overly burdensome regulatory environment credit unions face.
If you would like more information on this matter or would like to speak about this with Brad Thaler, please let me know.
Thank you.
Dana Kauffman
Communications Coordinator
National Association of Federal Credit Unions
3138 10th Street North
Arlington, VA 22201
Phone: 703-842-2235
Fax: 703-524-1082
dkauffman@nafcu.org
June 17, 2014
The Honorable Bob Goodlatte The Honorable John Conyers
Chairman Ranking Member
Judiciary Committee Judiciary Committee
United States House of Representatives United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515 Washington, D.C. 20515
Re: NAFCU Support for the Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily
Burdensome (SCRUB) Act of 2014
Dear Chairman Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers:
On behalf of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU), the only trade association exclusively representing the interests of our nation’s federally chartered credit unions, I write today in conjunction with tomorrow’s markup of the Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome (SCRUB) Act of 2014. Credit unions and their 97.1 million members strongly support efforts to ensure that all federal agencies, including those with direct jurisdiction over credit unions including the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), appropriately consider the impact of their rules and regulations.
As you know, this legislation would establish a commission to review federal regulations and identify those that should be repealed or amended to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens. In addition, the bill would require agencies to offset the cost of new regulations by repealing or amending regulations identified by the commission. NAFCU supports the intention of regulatory relief behind this draft legislation and believes it would be a good first step in addressing the overly burdensome regulatory environment credit unions face.
All community based financial services institutions, including credit unions, are struggling under an ever-increasing regulatory burden. The impact of this growing compliance burden is evident as the number of credit unions continues to decline, dropping by more than 700 institutions since 2009. Credit unions didn’t cause the financial crisis and shouldn’t be caught in the crosshairs of regulations aimed at those entities that did. Unfortunately, that has not been the case thus far as all credit unions are subject to rule writing authority of the CFPB. Accordingly, finding ways to cut-down on burdensome and unnecessary regulatory compliance costs is a chief priority of our members. We are pleased to see that it is also a priority of the Judiciary Committee, as evidenced by the consideration of this legislation.
As outlined in the attached document, NAFCU’s five point plan for regulatory relief includes several important provisions aimed at ensuring that credit unions aren’t subject to burdensome, outdated, or duplicative regulation. As the Judiciary Committee looks for ways to reduce regulatory burden moving forward, we ask that you keep in mind the need for regulatory relief for our nation’s credit unions.
Thank you for the opportunity to voice our concerns regarding the overwhelming regulatory burden credit unions face. We look forward to working with you as the committee considers regulatory relief legislation and stand ready to provide additional input should the committee have questions about burdens faced by small financial institutions such as credit unions.
If my colleagues or I can be of assistance to you, or if you have any questions regarding this issue, please feel free to contact myself, or NAFCU’s Director of Legislative Affairs, Jillian Pevo at (703) 842-2836.
Sincerely,
Brad Thaler
Vice President of Legislative Affairs
cc: Members of the House Judiciary Committee