Fighting for full CDFI Fund, CDRLF funding in FY26
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government has earmarked funds for vital credit union programs in its FY26 draft legislation, but less than current FY25 funding levels. America’s Credit Unions President/CEO Jim Nussle sent a letter in advance of the bill’s subcommittee markup Monday afternoon, urging the committee to maintain FY25 funding amounts for both the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Fund and the NCUA’s Community Development Revolving Loan Fund (CDRLF).
The CDFI Fund provides funding and technical assistance grants to support affordable housing, homeownership, small business growth, sustainable job creation, and consumer financial security through powerful public-private partnerships. The subcommittee funds it at $276.6 million, less than the FY25-enacted levels of $324 million.
The NCUA’s Community Development Revolving Loan Fund (CDRLF) provides revolving loan and technical assistance grant programs to low-income credit unions. The subcommittee funds it at $3.4 million for FY26, America’s Credit Unions calls on the committee to raise that to the FY25-enacted level of $4 million “so NCUA may continue to issue these grants at the same pace as recent years,” Nussle wrote.
Nussle urged the committee to provide full funding to the Small Business Administration “to support its lending programs, including disaster loans, and to ensure that credit unions have the right regulatory environment to partner with the administration.”
The letter supports language in the bill that would prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC), which America’s Credit Unions expects “that the net costs of a CBDC will exceed the benefits, and that administration of a CBDC will distract from the Federal Reserve’s dual mandate of achieving both stable prices and maximum sustainable employment.”
The credit union-supported Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act (H.R. 1919) would bar the Fed from issuing a CBDC, and cleared the House with a 219-210 vote last week.
Both the CDFI Fund and CDRLF were zeroed out in President Donald Trump’s FY26 budget proposal, and America’s Credit Unions will continue to advocate for full funding throughout the appropriations process.
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