WASHINGTON—The House Ways and Means Committee later this week will be digging in and talking about ways to pay for the new tax bill, and the Defense Credit Union Council contends the movement is in a strong position to keep its tax break.
As CUToday.info has extensively reported, Republicans are exploring various strategies to increase revenue as part of the budget reconciliation package, including the movement’s tax break.
“We are working, and have been working hard for the past year, to ensure that as part of those Ways and Means Committee discussions that the credit union tax exemption is not added to the menu,” said DCUC Chief Advocacy Officer Jason Stverak. “We're optimistic that DCUC and its members have done a good job of educating members of Congress on this issue.”
But Stverak said DCUC and its members are not going to let up.
“To use a sports metaphor, we're going to run through the tape on this issue,” he said. “I want to thank all of our member credit unions that have been sending letters, not only from their CEOs but from their entire teams, and reaching out to their members to have them contact their representatives in the House and in the Senate. This type of grassroots effort cannot be done without the active participation of millions of credit union members all across this country.”
Stverak told CUToday.info that anytime members of Congress and their staff—and specifically the Ways and Means Committee—are having meetings discussing tax legislation, that's a “red light siren that should be going off for every association and every credit union. I think that efforts that we have completed to rally our defense credit unions and our members to contact their representatives have been very helpful. They’ve, at the very least, bolstered credit union supporters in Congress, providing reasons to not support any effort to eliminate the credit union tax status—such as the ICBA’s request to tax credit unions above $1 billion in assets.”