On the air: Nussle joins Sirius XM show to address credit union tax status, Senate deliberations

May 28, 2025

As the budget reconciliation bill, H.R. 1, moves on to the Senate -  SiriusXM’s POTUS Mornings interviewed  America’s Credit Unions President/CEO Jim Nussle about the credit union difference and the “why” behind keeping the federal income tax status in place for credit unions.

“A credit union is a way for small investors, small consumers, people who are just getting their first car loan, maybe their first home loan, or just starting off in the world as a small business person,” said Nussle. “They’re able to utilize the tax status to be an owner of a credit union and as a result they get a little better rates, both in terms of the loans they take out as well as the passbook savings they would be able to maintain.”

Host Tim Farley remarked that he didn’t realize the number of credit union members was so great, to which Nussle explained that “most people start off in a credit union.”

“[Credit unions are] a better place to kind of get your feet wet because most banks don’t really cater to the smaller consumer investors,” Nussle said. “Many stay and many find that credit unions are a great place to go.”

Nussle gave an example of this personalized service when discussing credit unions’ actions during the COVID-19 pandemic, where credit unions were the best destination for small businesses to attain gap loans that were being offered by the U.S. government in order to maintain employment and stay on their feet.

With more than 800,000 messages already delivered to Congress, outreach is still going strong. Now that the House bill version did not include a tax on credit unions, Nussle said that the Don’t Tax My Credit Union campaign will keep credit unions’ message consistent until the bill is passed by the Senate.

“Just leave the tax status the way it is, allow credit union members to pay their taxes and allow the cooperative benefit of people coming together for cooperative finance to be maintained.”

Nussle also discussed what comes next for tax conversations in this next stage:

“The Senate is going to take what the House has done and they’re going to look at a number of provisions, not only the provisions the House considered, but will likely have some other interests that they will look into as they compile their version of [H.R.1]. I think President Trump has made it clear that he wants to move as quickly as possible. I think the economy certainly demands that we have more certainty as quickly as possible. My guess is that the Senate is going to certainly put their fingerprints on it, but it'll look very similar to what the House passed.”

Listen to clips of the interview on America’s Credit Unions social media: