ACUMA ONpoint
ACUMA ONpoint
Congress Faces Shutdown Threats While Credit Unions Gain Policy Wins
Annmarie Conboy-DePasquale from Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck breaks down crucial policy issues facing credit unions today, from the looming government funding deadline to major legislative wins. We examine the state of play in Washington and highlight recent victories that will impact how credit unions serve their members.
Here's what you need to know:
- Government funding expires September 30th, but a continuing resolution is likely to extend it until mid-November. Without an agreement, a shutdown could occur, with impacts increasing the longer it lasts. The thin margins in both the House and the Senate make bipartisan cooperation essential but challenging.
- Trigger leads legislation was signed into law on September 5th and will take effect on March 5th, 2026
- The Unified Agenda reveals upcoming regulatory actions from CFPB and NCUA. The CFPB plans to revise UDAAP interpretation and issue advanced notices on loan originator compensation.
- The Road to Housing Act was passed unanimously out of the Senate Banking Committee with 28 provisions.• The Housing Act includes measures on housing supply, manufactured housing, appraisal process reform, and small-dollar origination. The bill may be attached to the National Defense Authorization Act to improve passage chances
Don't miss this and more on this edition of the ONpoint Podcast, the Policy Series. Tune in now!
Sponsored by Loan Vision
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of ACUMA, its board of directors, its management staff or its members. The podcast discussion presented is conversational in nature and for general information only.
Speaker 2:This is ACMA's On Point Podcast. On today's episode we'll dive into policy issues facing our members, ranging from the state of play with government funding to some details on the Road to Housing Act. But before we get to it, just a quick word from our sponsor.
Speaker 3:This episode is being brought to you by Lone Vision, but before we get to it, just a quick word from our sponsor. And automations to streamline workflows and improve control over financial performance. Transform your cost centers into revenue generators by equipping your team with the tools needed to better serve your members. And don't miss our monthly webinar series where we share key strategies and best practices to help credit unions optimize their mortgage operations. Register today at wwwloanvisioncom under our upcoming events page.
Speaker 2:Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, hello and welcome to ACMA's On Point podcast, a series focused on sharing the stories of people who are making a positive impact in the credit union mortgage industry. I'm your host, Peter Benjamin. Today, I am joined by resident expert Anne-Marie Conboy, policy advisor with Brownstein AM. What's going on? Long time no see or long time no speak. How are you doing?
Speaker 4:I'm doing well. I'm really glad to be back on the pod always, but especially this September, because we have so much going on in Washington. But I'm also really excited to be stopping by the Acuma annual conference next week. Well, next week when we're recording this.
Speaker 2:Have you. I know we've been working with you guys for about two years now. Is this your first annual with us.
Speaker 2:This is my first annual years now, is this your first annual with us? This is my first annual, okay, well, I mean, you know we were at the Gaylord two two years ago. That feels right, and I know Zach and Leah stopped in when we were at the Gaylord. They should have, they should have brought you. I mean, it's, it's, you're, you're, you're going to have a good time, I promise, I promise. Anyways, we're not here to talk about that, although we probably could spend the next 20 minutes talking about it, but we have a lot of things to go over, so let's dive in. As I mentioned in my intro, first things first, probably one of the most looming things on the horizon. I don't want to start negative in the pod or kind of be a Douglas downer, but let's start with the state of play with government funding. Is the shutdown really a realistic thing? That's going to happen.
Speaker 4:I think, peter, that's the question on everyone's mind right now. We are today two weeks out from the expiration of current levels of government funding, so government funding annually expires at the end of the fiscal year, so September 30th. There are a whole bunch of other things that expire on September 30th as well A whole range of authorizations, programs like the National Flood Insurance Program have elements that expire on September 30th, the whole bunch of healthcare things. But government funding is the piece that kind of gets the most attention, and the resolution of government funding also usually carries a fix for all of these other things. So the thing about government funding is that we seem to find ourselves in this position every single September. It's kind of a groundhog day scenario and it always wraps up almost at the last possible minute. Often the solution is well, I'll say, for over two decades I believe, the solution has been a short-term measure called a continuing resolution, so that carries government funding. It can be from anywhere to a week to many months. We're actually right now operating under a long-term continuing resolution that was enacted back in March. That followed a series of shorter continuing resolutions, and these are kind of band-aids that take the place of a big package of government funding. So right now the most likely scenario is that we will have a continuing resolution that funds the government until mid November, so probably November 20th.
Speaker 4:If Congress is not able to get that through, we will be faced with a shutdown. And at that point the question becomes is this a true logjam? Is this a multi-day shutdown, even a multi-week shutdown, or is it something that's resolved quite quickly? Short shutdowns really have no material impact on the federal government apparatus. The longer a government shutdown goes on, the more significant the impacts. If we end up looking at a shutdown, you know, less than a few days, we won't really feel the effects. The longest shutdown was 35 days. That was back during the first Trump administration. You really start to feel it at that point. You know a huge amount of the federal government is closed during a shutdown. The folks who are going in aren't getting their paychecks, so it also makes life difficult for them.
Speaker 4:As we, as things kind of stand today, two weeks out, the complicating factor is that Congress is in recess next week. So while 14 days feels like a lifetime in CR time, when you're not in session for a week of it, it starts to eat away very quickly. So they're trying to solve this problem ahead of time and move a bill through the House of Representatives that, like I said, would fund the government through mid-November. Through the House of Representatives that, like I said, would fund the government through mid-November, it's easy to get a bill. I shouldn't say easy.
Speaker 4:A bill can be moved through the House of Representatives with support from just the majority party. That's not true in the Senate, which makes things a little bit more complicated over there. In some ways, you cannot pass a bill through the Senate under regular order without support from both parties, and so in the event that the bill that the House passes is partisan, meaning it passes only with support from Republicans, the process in the Senate is much harder because you'd have to change the bill, most likely to get support from some Democrats, in order to get it through the chamber. So there are a lot of question marks right now. You know what will bring the Democrats to the table that the Republicans can find palatable, being kind of the number one question in everyone's mind, and that might look like a mix of some, some health care pieces, tbd, what else might find its way into that negotiating table? But that's a very long winded way of saying. Nobody knows exactly how the next two weeks will play out, but hopefully the resolution will be that short term funding patch until November.
Speaker 2:OK, so you know, appreciate that. Now you know this is both sides. Whether you look at the House and the Senate, you know the margin of error or the separation between the two parties on either the House or the Senate, is pretty thin right.
Speaker 4:You can only lose two votes in the House actually and still pass with just Republican support. So an ultra thin majority right now.
Speaker 2:And so what's the one thing in your mind that really could be the item that could hold it up? Not from both the House and Senate passing the budget and us having to continue on with either a continuing resolution or a shutting down for a period of time.
Speaker 4:So for Democrats, I think a big piece of the puzzle right now is whether Republicans will agree to include an extension of some of these enhanced Obamacare or Affordable Care Act credits that are lingering out there right now. Senate Republican leadership has maintained that they're not interested in attaching those because they want to do full year government funding when the short-term patch expires in November. I think Republicans are keen to keep the CR clean, and by clean I mean not attaching other things to it, with minor exceptions like those authorizations I mentioned earlier and some enhanced security funding for members of Congress and the judicial branch. So that's kind of where the two roads meet, where Democrats want kind of a sweetener on the CR in exchange for their votes. Republicans want to keep a clean CR, but Democrats nobody wants to shut down the government.
Speaker 4:I should say, you know, from the Democratic perspective, I think this administration has leaned heavily on DOGE, leaned heavily on rescissions and trying to reduce the size of spending at the federal level, and so a shutdown in which massive amounts of operations are ceased. It makes the follow-up questions very easy of well, how much should we actually be bringing back online? So I think there's a lot of sensitivity on both sides. No one really wants a shutdown. No one really wins in a shutdown, but the path to avoiding that is always kind of littered with potholes.
Speaker 2:No, and you know, appreciate that, and you me talking me personally, not you, and if I take flack, I take flack. It just seems like there's, with everything that's happened with I'm not going to say recently, but with Doge and the layoffs, and with a looming shutdown, it almost seems like you know from the house and some standpoint they would almost. There's, almost it seems like an added incentive for them to push this forward or come to some type of agreement, because if you think about their constituents, you know people who are actually voting them in. Like there's, in my opinion, it just seems like there's a little bit more of an incentive for them to kind of work this out Right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think that's right, Peter. I think the federal government programs that you know anything from HUD to Treasury to any all these cabinet agencies they impact people's day-to-day lives in so many ways, whether you're a recipient of a program or you work for the federal government in a, you know, a USDA regional office or something like that. There there really are huge ripple impacts and no one wants that to come to fruition All right?
Speaker 2:Well, we'll move on past this one. Let's go to something a little bit more positive, um something that we we've all been, you know, wanting to see move forward for years. At this point in time, trigger leads.
Speaker 4:give us an update on trigger leads so I think that is a great pivot out of the the current situation, the negativity of a looming shutdown yes.
Speaker 4:Exactly so. Trigger leads is a great example of a few things. Number one, I think, a successful legislative effort. Of course, the bill was signed into law on September 5th. It will take effect March 5th 2026. So it's a 180-day period between enactment and effect and this is a piece of legislation or a statute. Now I should say where the ball was moved forward a little bit every Congress and that's a very normal series of events for successful pieces of legislation is that it can take a few years between when an idea comes to being and when it gains that bipartisan traction and momentum to move excuse me, move through Congress.
Speaker 4:You know, if you look on paper at this bill, there were only, I think, five months between when it was introduced and when it was signed into law.
Speaker 4:But you know, you and I know and I think a lot of the listeners here know that this was a multi-year effort that took a lot, of, a lot of support from both sides and a lot of conversation and a lot of buy-in from members of Congress and their staff and in the end I think we got to a place that the stakeholders were happy with and it moved through with bipartisan support in both chambers.
Speaker 4:The president signed into law and it's hopefully going to meet the goals that it laid out and folks will be happy with it. There is a study that's required by the bill, so that'll kind of be, I think, one of the first pieces of follow-up that's required. The agencies have until, I suppose, september of 2026 to do a study on trigger leads that are received by text message and see whether there needs to be, you know, follow-up, legislation or guidance or anything related to that segment. So we'll keep an eye on that. But I would definitely call this a win and, I think, a great example of of bipartisanship and the legislative process working right yep 100.
Speaker 2:That was, you said, perfect segue out of doom and gloom. But yeah, and like you said, this was multi-year but also multi-versions of this potential bill. Happy to see it go forward. Ask me to talk about, you know, the various issues that are impacting our side of the industry. Trigger leads tends to be one of those items that people often ask me well, what's going on with this? You know, and obviously, thanks to you guys, I tend to always know what's happening, but I guess I can finally take this off of my list. Well, I'll probably take this off my list within the next six months, once people realize that it's finally done. But, yes, good, all right. So next thing on the list, we have highlights from the latest unified agenda, so let's walk through this.
Speaker 4:So the unified agenda is an interesting piece of the federal government, piece of the federal government. So basically every single cabinet, agency, independent agency, they all have their own plans right. They have rulemakings that they pursue, they have RFIs, they have pilot programs, all manner of things. The unified agenda is kind of the White House's effort to give us an easy look into what all these agencies are up to, at least at a 30,000 foot level. So the unified agenda lives online. Anyone can look at it. All of the agencies covered by it submit to the executive excuse me, to OMB, the Office of Management and Budget at the White House a list of all of the rulemakings that they're actively working on. So these can be things that they're working on right now. You know open proposed rules could be things that they are hoping to publish in the next few months. There's even a section of the Unified Agenda that's devoted to long-term rulemaking, so things that are years away but their regulators want people to know they're starting to think about, and it's published twice a year. It's always fascinating to me, because the Unified Agenda is both a little bit of a crystal ball and a little bit retrospective, because agencies submit all of their rules to OMB and then it takes several weeks, sometimes a few months, for the agenda to actually be published out in the world. So once we go to take a look at it we might see which was the case this year or with this edition that an agency will say we are going to do, you know, x rulemaking in Y month and by the time it comes out that month will have passed and the rulemaking will not yet exist. So it's still a crystal ball. But it's also showing us that they're also a little bit behind where they thought they might be in that moment.
Speaker 4:So it's a great tool. It's. I think it's great that the government goes through the effort to, you know, put this together and publish it. We look at all manner of agencies' agendas and, you know, glean what we can. And then it's a great opportunity to go in and talk to relevant Hill staff, hill offices, agency staff and say you know, we saw that you're working on this. We would love to talk about it, we would love to provide input, we would love to be helpful. So it serves, I think, a lot of functions and I'm happy to talk kind of more specifically about what we saw at some of the agencies, peter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, by all means.
Speaker 4:Great. So you know, looking at CFPB, I would say generally a lot of the agencies had fewer rulemakings listed than you know they might have during the last edition, which was and that's not uncommon. You know, agencies are still getting their staff in, they're getting their confirmed leadership in place. So it's very normal for the first unified agenda of a new administration to contain more kind of repeals or rescissions and to just take off some of the things that the previous administration had been working on. So, cfpb, one of the things that they put in their agenda is that they are going to rework their interpretation of UDAP. You know, I think we know the Biden administration took a much broader interpretation of the CFPB's responsibilities under UDAP than previous administrations would have preferred. So it doesn't surprise me that we're going to see them kind of turn the wheel on that again. They're also going to put out some what we call advanced notice of proposed rulemakings, which is a precursor even to a proposed rule on loan originator compensation revisions and on potential revisions to discretionary servicing rules. So those are a little bit more in the distance, I would say, because you have to do that If you're going to start with an ANPRM, you still have a notice of proposed rulemaking to go after that, and there's typically several months, potentially a year, between those two steps. Several months, you know, potentially a year between those two steps.
Speaker 4:Looking at NCUA, I think some of the things that we noticed from them were the removal of disparate impact liability from its fair lending guide and that so that the NCUA announced separately but it linked up with something that we then saw in the unified agenda separately but it linked up with something that we then saw in the unified agenda which has to do with kind of a fulsome rulemaking reinterpreting the FHFA's disparate impact standard. So there's kind of an inextricable tether between what the agency is doing in real time and what they're putting in their unified agenda and it's all pieces of the one big puzzle.
Speaker 2:No, it's fascinating. It really is how it's interesting. That's all I'm saying interesting. So let's pivot onto our last topic Now. I'm gonna preface this by saying a few weeks ago we did a fly-in with a few of our members and we had the pleasure of meeting with several, you know, policymakers, and they were all amazing meetings. Everyone was very warm and inviting, you know, and in every single instance, you know, I think we had 11 meetings, you know we always talked about, you know, credit unions matter and if you ever have a question or you ever, before you make a decision, call a credit union, let that hear from them. But one of the common talking points and one of the common topics that was always brought up, regardless whether it's the House or the Senate, was the Roads Act or the Road to Housing Act. Now, you know this is not something that's that's new and obviously you know this has been out since early August or past the Senate at the end of July.
Speaker 2:And now it's currently in the House and it'll probably be part of the NBA, sorry, passed out of committee at the end of. July.
Speaker 4:I'm getting ahead of myself.
Speaker 2:You are, and it was unanimous right. Was it all? 24, right.
Speaker 4:Yes, it was a 24-0 vote out of the Senate Banking Committee and it still has to go to the Senate floor. But bills that come out of committee with unanimous support like that, generally the issue is getting them floor time, not getting them the votes to pass the chamber. And I should say the fact that the Senate Banking Committee is holding markups at all is a big deal. They were famous in recent years for not holding markups, which can be a hurdle in getting legislation to the floor, because markups are a very essential part of the legislative process.
Speaker 4:But this bill coming out of the Senate Banking Committee with all of that support is a big deal. It is a package of 28 pieces of legislation. So there was a lot of buy in from members of committee and it took a lot of hard work from staff to put this together. In from members of committee and it took a lot of hard work from staff to put this together. Anytime a big package like this makes it into the dais for those votes. There's so much work that goes on behind the scenes and the 28 bills being packaged together is just a great sign that everyone kind of got a piece of the pie at the end of the day, and there may have been something that they weren't as favorable on, but they were committed to supporting the bill in its entirety because they were bought in on provisions one, two and three, if not five and six.
Speaker 2:And correct me if I'm wrong. It was the Warren and Scott teams that really put this together. Right, they were spearheading it.
Speaker 4:Yes, Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott are the the chair and ranking of the committee.
Speaker 2:So the majority and minority staff on committee are the drivers for things like this um, so yeah, do you by chance have you know the main items within the roads that we know we could, that our members really could look forward to?
Speaker 4:Yeah. So, like I said, there's quite a lot of things in this bill. There are measures that you know work to expand housing supply. There are bills that support manufactured housing. There are targeted reform programs. There are provisions that would make the appraisal process run more efficiently, you know, letting licensed and credentialed appraisers conduct appraisals for FHFA properties. There are provisions to help incentivize small dollar origination. Really are quite a number of things that made it into the bill that, like I said, kind of make it a mosaic of housing policy as opposed to a bill focused on, you know, one narrow, specific issue.
Speaker 2:No, it's a good one. It really is. Even after I came back from that fly in, I did a little research on it and it's there's a lot of really, really good provisions in here. I see why it did pass the Senate banking unanimously.
Speaker 4:I guess more and more.
Speaker 2:to come on it Right.
Speaker 4:More to come. There is an effort. So the bill has two options for getting out of the Senate so it can move under regular order. In the event that it is considered on the floor. It's likely that Senate staff will run a hotline on the bill, so they'll just double check. No one has any major issues that can make the process move more smoothly on the floor.
Speaker 4:But the real challenge, like I said, is that Senate floor time is really limited and a lot of it's taken up right now by nominations. Some will be taken up by dealing with the continuing resolution. So another avenue that Senator Scott and more are working on is potentially attaching it to the National Defense Authorization Act, which is a very big defense bill that passes every single year. The NDAA is one of the only bills that passes every single year, so there's always an effort to attach other things to it. Because this is a bipartisan bill, it has a better chance. But at the end of the day they may decide not to include any non-defense pieces on the bill. They may decide to include them. We're a little too far out to say right now how things will go down, but in the event that that is a viable avenue. I know they're working hard at making sure that the Road Act is a contender for that.
Speaker 2:It's interesting that you brought that up. In our meetings I think we had 10, 11 meetings. I specifically remember two of the people that we met with mentioned that odds are that it's going to be part of the NDA, so they're already anticipating that. That it's just. It's just going to end up going that path. Whether that's good or bad, they're just already anticipating it, which is fine, right, it's good to keep all options open. That's right, that's right. Well, any trivia for us today before we go, or fun?
Speaker 4:facts. So I am aware, peter, that during the fly-in you had an opportunity to get kind of a vip. Look at the capital. Is that correct? I sure did yes so I thought it might be fun if we ran through some of the the some of my personal favorite fun facts about the capital and you can let me know whether this aligned with your experience okay, okay, I love it, let's do it. So did you guys find yourselves down on the crypt level at all?
Speaker 2:Is that where George Washington was supposedly was was supposed to be buried?
Speaker 4:Exactly that was going to be. The topic of my question was was he ever buried there?
Speaker 2:Um. The topic of my question was was he ever buried there? Um? I think he was, but then he was relocated to mount vernon right he.
Speaker 4:I think they came very close to putting him down there and then they they changed course. Then he was at mount vernon. Um, so it's just an empty tomb. It's an empty crypt down there at the Capitol. Yeah, did you see any paw prints while you were on your tour?
Speaker 2:I did not.
Speaker 4:So there are some famous paw prints in the Capitol. I will tell you they're cat paws and they were from back in the day, any number of years ago I guess, from when the stones weren't quite set yet. And there's just cute little cat paw prints roaming around from back when they used to use them to catch all the mice in the Capitol. I don't know how they catch the mice now.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 4:And then my last one, I guess, will be did you experience the whisper spot while you were in the old house chamber? It's a beautiful room with red drapings and With all the statues. Yes, statuary Hall.
Speaker 2:I did not. No, when we were in there, when we went into the old house chamber, it was jam-packed with people that makes sense. Yeah.
Speaker 4:So there is there. You probably witnessed people crowded together in two spots, separated by maybe 15, 20 yards, and that is the whisper spot, which the shape of the ceiling in that room allows your voice to carry in an arc of the ceiling in that room allows your voice to carry in an arc. So back in the day the representatives used to kind of spy on each other because they could hear what the other people were whispering, and so people figured that out and they moved, you know, away from those those parts of the chamber. But now it's just kind of a famous spot on the tour.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, I appreciate you coming prepared with you, know, some fun facts or trivia, whatever you want to frame it up as. Thank you very much for that.
Speaker 4:I could do a whole podcast episode on US capital trivia, so if that's ever on the docket, please invite me back 100%, 100%.
Speaker 2:We can make that happen. We can make that happen, well, am. Thank you so much for your time today. Truly do appreciate it and, as always, appreciate everything that you and the Brownstein team do for ACMA and our members.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2:Of course, and to close out, thank you again to Lone Vision for sponsoring today's episode and to all of you. We know your time is valuable. Thank you for tuning in to the latest episode of ACMA's On Point Podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. Until next time. Be well, my friends.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time at the ACMA On Point Podcast. If not already, be sure to subscribe and give us a five-star rating For more great episodes and information. Be sure to visit us online at acmaorg and to get the latest updates. Head over to our LinkedIn page.
