Legislative Update with Jay Kruse

First ever DakCU hosted CULAC Social in DC was a huge success – with all six of our congressional delegation making an appearance to meet with our CU advocates. 

Good morning and happy Wednesday! I hope everyone is having a great week so far. If you have been paying attention to The Memo and our DakCU social media accounts, you are well aware our annual Fall Regulatory/Legislative Hike the Hill took place last week in Washington DC. Last Friday, Amy provided a detailed recap of our regulatory meetings, and on Monday Jeff also provided a great recap of our trip in his President’s Perspective, including a ton of pictures!
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Today, I’m going to provide an additional recap of our meetings in the nation’s capital. First off, I will echo Jeff’s comments from his article on Monday – it certainly was great to be back with “boots on the ground” in the District to engage with our congressional delegation and their staff face-to-face. These personal connections go a long way in continuing to strengthen our relationships with our elected officials. Senator Rounds said it best during our meetings, “If you aren’t out here in DC advocating and telling your story, someone else is probably telling your story for you.” I couldn’t agree more and that is exactly why the CUNA GAC and Fall Hike the Hill are vital to our advocacy efforts here in the Dakotas!

Senator Rounds with Dakota credit union advocates.

​As you can probably guess, the COVID pandemic had some pretty dramatic effects on navigating Capitol Hill. Prior to the pandemic, walking from congressional office to office was a piece of cake. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. Now, a congressional staff escort is essentially required at all times while inside of the Capitol as well as inside all Senate and House office buildings. In fact, the escorts were now required to meet our group outside each building and stand in line with us, to allow us to pass through security guards prior to passing through the airport-like security screenings inside each entrance. We can’t thank the congressional offices enough for making themselves available to help us get through security as smoothly as possible!

​We are also excited to announce this week, that because of our direct involvement and personal engagement, we successfully secured support on bi-partisan credit union specific legislation in both chambers as Senator Cramer (ND) agreed to co-sponsor S.4323; and Congressman Dustin Johnson (SD) and Congressman Kelly Armstrong (ND) will be supporting H.R.6869, legislation that will enhance credit union board meeting flexibility. We also continue to push Senators Hoeven, Thune, and Rounds to jump on this legislation as well.

Rep. Dusty Johnson with Jay Kruse and the Dakota CU advocates.

In addition to our meetings on the Hill, we also hosted the entire Dakotas’ congressional delegation at the historic Credit Union House for our first ever Dakota CULAC Social. In his Monday article, Jeff called it a “smashing success,” but I believe that may be an understatement after some of the feedback I received from our featured guests!
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On his way out, Congressman Dusty Johnson asked me a very open-ended question: “How did you do it?” He was referring to how we were able to get all six members of the Dakotas’ congressional delegation into one room at the same time. Not because they don’t all get along, but he was impressed we were able to find a time that fit into all their busy schedules during a very busy time in Washington. According to Congressman Johnson, this was the first time he could remember that all six were in the same room at the same time! We can be proud and honored to be the first group (to our knowledge) to make that happen.