Coming Together in DC

Last week, I traveled to Washington, D.C. alongside several of my Michigan credit union colleagues for Hike the Hill, a cornerstone event of our year-round advocacy efforts. Kieran, Todd and I were happy to have nearly 50 of us from 30 different credit unions representing Michigan this year as we hit on some key priorities with 14 of the 15 congressional offices.

At our networking reception, it was fun to see the new faces and first-timers at this event. We had great weather and knowledgeable advocates as we rolled up our sleeves, linked arms and hiked to the Capitol.

As with last year, interchange and overdraft protection took precedence during most of our meetings. Thankfully, we have already gotten a lot of support from lawmakers regarding interchange, but there’s still plenty of work to be done to educate our leaders about how the dissolution of voluntary overdraft protection will negatively impact our movement’s ability to serve their constituents. Also at the top of our list was to educate our lawmakers on the topic of bank acquisitions. Bankers are really knocking on the doors of lawmakers to suggest that the practice is somehow against our mission or suggests our tax status should be modified. We spent some time discussing this issue and I was grateful that we have some credit unions with us who have acquired banks that could speak with concrete examples and experience.

We enjoyed our final Hill visit with Congressman Dan Kildee and thanked him for all of his support over the years. We hope to host a virtual call with Senator Debbie Stabenow to do something similar.

One of the highlights of the trip was getting to see colleagues share stories with national leaders that shed light on just how important CDFI Funds are to Michigan credit unions. These are federal funds that need better processing measures from the Treasury, and we made that clear last week. By making it easier for our movement to better access CDFI Funds, we can continue funding affordable housing projects, financial literacy programs and other life-changing opportunities that Michigan needs to grow stronger.

Now that we are back home, the work and engagement continues. We encourage you to continue to share your stories. Thanks to the credit unions who joined us and those that supported us at home! Oh! Guess what? We are going back to the Hill in March and registration is now open for the Governmental Affairs Conference! Hope to see you there!

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