Support for credit union tax status needed in final stages of reconciliation bill

The fight to secure the credit union tax status isn’t over, but the unified voice of credit unions has made an impact so far, America’s Credit Unions President/CEO Jim Nussle told attendees during a webinar Wednesday. Nussle and Chief Advocacy Officer Carrie Hunt provided an update on reconciliation, the GENIUS Act, and more.

The House passed its version of the One Big Beautiful Bill (H.R. 1) last month, and the tax status is unmentioned in the Senate Finance Committee’s initial draft. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has said he hopes for a floor vote before the July 4 recess.

“We’re obviously not completely out of the woods yet. Yes, we won every battle along the way, but the war is not quite over with. We have to continue to make sure senators know the credit union difference, to make sure they know not to tax credit unions, that as leaders who we’ve been in contact throughout this process work to cobble together a final bill that they don’t all of a sudden bring up credit union taxation as a way to try and resolve any challenges that they have in this process,” Nussle said. “That’s why we we’ve been involved both on the legislative side, on the advocacy side on the political side, and on the communications side.”

Nussle said the process to reconcile differing House-passed and Senate-passed versions of the bill may end involve leadership from both chambers sending versions back and forth to find a compromise that both can pass.

“We ask you to keep up the great work you’ve been doing. The activities, the grassroots efforts, involving your members, involving your key teammates from your credit union, [Congress] know about the credit union difference, has paid off,” he said. “We don’t want to let up though. We don’t want any surprises between now and then and I think if we continue the momentum we’re going to be in great shape.”

This includes participating in next week’s Don’t Tax My Credit Union week of action, Hunt said, “this is our final grassroots push to make sure that credit unions are certainly top of mind as this tax bill goes into its final stages.”

Hunt also provided information on other credit union-related provisions in the Senate’s version of H.R. 1, which is available for members here.

On the regulatory side, Hunt noted several opportunities for regulatory relief, despite uncertainty. This includes the CFPB, which is still without a director nominee, but under acting Director Russ Vought is rescinding items, eliminating others, and indicating the bureau will not enforce others.

This includes the small business data collection rule, and the open banking rule.

“There are lots of different issues which we would love to see congressional action on, and also things at the regulators as well,” Hunt said, and encouraged attendees to register for America’s Credit Unions Congressional Caucus coming up Sept. 7 through 9.

“It’s going to be an amazing opportunity to hopefully thank our lawmakers, should we see the finalization of this tax bill But it is also a wonderful opportunity for us to take some of this momentum that we have these past few months of telling the credit union difference and seeing if we can see some positive change.