Off the Record, On the Issues with John

​Stay informed on how recent executive orders, NCUA plans, and local advocacy efforts impact credit union members and rural lending in the Dakotas.

By John Alexander, DakCU Director of Legislative & Regulatory Affairs

What Trump’s Executive Orders Mean for Credit Union Members
President Trump declared a national energy emergency; a sweeping directive meant to accelerate domestic production and harden the grid in the face of surging demand from AI data centers and electrification. The order unlocks fast-track authorities across agencies, and the Department of Energy has since leaned on its 202(c) powers to keep plants online and move power where it’s needed. For credit unions, that’s not an abstract fight in Washington; it’s the price of heat in January and the stress on a family’s checking account in July. As emergency orders ripple through regional grids and courts weigh challenges, we’re watching a simple equation: energy policy becomes cash-flow reality for members, and cash-flow reality becomes credit risk at the branch.

The administration has paired that energy push with a reset of federal diversity policy. An executive order ended DEI programs across agencies and signaled a new compliance baseline for federal contractors and partners. For our movement, which prizes both fair treatment and operational clarity, the practical takeaway is to keep policies current and vendor due diligence tight. The tone from Washington has changed, but our north star hasn’t: treat people fairly, document decisions, and protect member trust.

Two immigration-adjacent actions matter for front-line operations. First, the citizenship order— “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship”—aims to narrow birthright citizenship; it’s been met with immediate, evolving litigation and partial stays. That legal back-and-forth translates into questions at new-account desks about identification for newborns and parental status. Our job is to anchor in current law, follow agency guidance, and avoid on-the-fly decisions that could expose members or the institution. Second, the administration’s move to designate English as the official language reorients federal language-access expectations. While largely symbolic at the constitutional level, it’s already influencing agency practice, and we should expect more English-first documentation from federal counterparts. Credit unions serving multilingual communities may want to sustain translation and interpretation where it improves service quality and reduces errors because good service is good risk management.

All of this lands in the same place we always come back to in the Dakotas: prudent lending, clear disclosures, and member education. Whether an emergency order holds down utility bills or nudges them up, whether a federal policy narrows or broadens language support, our members still walk through the door needing safe, affordable credit and straight answers. We’ll keep tracking the orders, the court rulings, and the agency memos, translating the noise into practical steps so a family can plan a budget, a small business can buy a truck, and a member can sleep at night knowing their credit union is steady at the wheel.

Keeping Ag Credit Alive in NCUA’s 2026–2030 Plan
Recently the Dakota Credit Union Association (DakCU) wrote an important letter to the Nation Credit Union Administration (NCUA). The stakes are simple and stark: if we mislabel the lifeblood of the Dakotas ag lending as “climate vulnerable,” we starve the very producers who are already planting solutions in the soil. In its August 15 comment letter on NCUA’s 2026–2030 Strategic Plan, DakCU reminds the agency that 63 Dakota credit unions serve nearly 560,000 members across rural communities, where agriculture, food, and energy define local life; the request is clear don’t let climate-risk language be read as a red light on farm credit, especially when loans are financing no-till, cover crops, rotations, and other practices that cut emissions and sequester carbon.

From there, the letter gets practical: calibrate exams to the realities of small, rural institutions; modernize field-of-membership rules so thinly populated regions can grow; and guard against losing regional know-how as the agency streamlines under Executive Order 14210 because a “leaner” NCUA must still be an informed one. It also asks for more transparency about examiner priorities and the cumulative regulatory load, tying every request back to the same goal: regulation that protects members without choking access to affordable finance in places that need it most. Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring has shared his letter in response to NCUA Chairman Hauptman’s request for feedback. You can read his letter here.

ND GAC: Lamoure Credit Union - PAC Scramble
We’re rolling straight from the fairways into the next swing: September 18 in LaMoure, sponsored by LaMoure Credit Union. Capital Credit Union, Hometown Credit Union, First Community Credit Union, Town & Country Credit Union, and your DakCU team are already in with eyes up, momentum high, ready to turn conversations about 2026–2027 and national shifts into home-turf results here in North Dakota. Register your team here!

However, we’re missing our home-grown small-town credit unions, and your voices change the game more than you probably know. I’ll be calling North Dakota CEOs next week to get you in the lineup; if you can’t make it, we totally understand, just help sponsor a fellow crew so those main street credit union stories still ride in the cart.

Let’s pack LaMoure and make this one count. Woot Woot!

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For more information or to share your perspectives, feel free to contact me.