Protecting credit union interests in the NDAA

Any effort to attach an interchange amendment to the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is strongly opposed by the credit union industry – a point America’s Credit Unions made loud and clear in a letter to Senate leaders sent Thursday. As part of an ongoing effort to stop interchange amendments on this annual defense-focused bill, America’s Credit Unions outlines how efforts to extend new routing requirements to credit cards would create significant disruption to credit-issuing credit unions.

The letter further explains that adding any interchange language from the Credit Card Competition Act or to commission an interchange fee study by the Department of Defense (DoD) would have negative impacts on the electronic payments system. The study amendment has recently been proposed by Senators Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill.  

“The Credit Card Competition Act not about competition. It is about increasing the profits of big box retailers at the expense of consumers and financial institutions by creating government intervention in a free market and establishing a backdoor price control on the credit card system,” wrote America’s Credit Unions President/CEO Jim Nussle, who also noted that a proposal to have DoD study the interchange issue is just a “trojan horse” to attach this issue to the bill.

A second letter to Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., Mike Rounds, R-S.D., Mark Warner, D-Va., and Tina Smith, D-Minn.—who have proposed a broad package to aid Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) by attaching the CDFI Fund Transparency Act, the CDFI Bond Guarantee Act, and the Scaling Community Lenders Act to the NDAA—offered credit union support for efforts to promote community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and committed to work with them to find “proper avenues to advance these issues.”

America’s Credit Unions has consistently led advocacy efforts on these issues to ensure credit unions can effectively serve their members.