By Frank J. Diekmann
You have no doubt seen the now-famous photo of the long line of climbers backed up and waiting to get to the summit of Mt. Everest earlier this Summer. The mental picture so many long held of a singular, dangerously isolated human being fighting against some of nature’s most brutal conditions on the roof of the world in a solitary struggle to the summit was shattered when climber Nirmal Purja posted a photo in May (at right, below) that made Everest feel more like the line at the DMV.
Washington, D.C., wasn’t exactly as difficult to get to as Everest last week when NAFCU hosted its annual Congressional Caucus (insert your own punchlines here about the lack of oxygen due to all the hot air, Trump Administration officials who made it to the top only to be pushed off the mountain, etc.), but there is at least one parallel: credit unions aren’t hiking that Hill by themselves.
Everyone who comes to Washington believes they and their cause are special. They are—and they are not. Grab a seat on a bench along the Washington Mall and watch the flights come in and out of National Airport every few minutes, and you will see with each arrival a plane packed with passengers and their Hill itineraries and their practiced “talking points,” and with each departure a plane stuffed full of passengers with travel receipts and optimistic reports for the home office on how they were heard.
The Grind
Mocking Congress is an American tradition as old as the Republic itself—Mark Twain made a cottage industry out of it––and the job certainly comes with its ego-massaging perks and attractive retirement plans (if and when members of Congress ever retire), but it also is a real grind. There’s the gallons of Purell needed for all that handshaking. For members from the West Coast especially, the travel is wearisome and punishing. A four-hour flight is tiring enough—now imagine sitting closer to someone than you would ever choose to sit in any other environment as they decide you need an earful of their advice on how to “fix” Washington. There is also the relentless fundraising (especially for House members) and the fact that absolutely every person you meet wants something from you, and that goes for credit unions. No one hikes the Hill, after all, just to see how your day and life are going.
25 Hours a Day
Then there are the 25 hours-per-day of demands on your time when you’re in Congress. Like thoroughbreds at auction, NAFCU’s Caucus does a good (and likely necessary) job of quickly rotating through members of Congress as speakers, many with 10- and 15-minute speaking slots. Most don’t depart from their notes and some feel especially hurried at the podium (otherwise it would be “Hey, is it Monday? Tuesday? Which group is this again?). Some congressmen and administration reps tailor their remarks to their CU audience, but many others have an “insert-group/cause name here” feel.
The point of all this is a reminder of why it is the trade groups are always making the same point about telling the credit union “story.” When NAFCU hosts its Caucus and CUNA its GAC and the state leagues their Hike the Hills, you already know the story—it’s tellthe story. You may be more bored with it than the same worn-out tale your uncle tells every Thanksgiving, and feel like you’ve told the CU story a hundred times already. Too bad. Get ready to tell it a 101sttime, and 102ndand…
And by the way, the same holds true for your own messages to members.
Human Instagram Feed
That’s because everyone is telling stories. Everyone has “leave behinds.” Everyone is shuffling out one door of their congressman’s office convinced they just nailed it even as another group is simultaneously being escorted in prepared to nail it themselves. It’s like a human Instagram feed with members of Congress and their staff scrolling through it all day long.
During NAFCU’s Caucus, there was another housing group meeting in the hotel at the same time (one housing official left the Caucus stage and then walked onto the stage at their meeting), along with a group of rheumatologists in town to do some lobbying. And that was just at one hotel in D.C. for a few days and doesn’t count all the visitors/favor-needers in the home districts with their own stories to tell.
I met up recently with an old high school classmate I haven’t seen in decades, and he shared how many years ago he had lost his young daughter to a disease that was terminal. The details were ugly and painful to hear. He related how he spends any extra time he might have lobbying Congress for funds for research on the disease that might lead to a cure, but he has a very difficult time getting an appointment with members of Congress. It doesn’t help, he admitted, that the foundation he’s helped create doesn’t have a lot of money or any big names attached to it. Still, he presses on in trying to have his daughter’s story heard.
The Party Chatter
Credit unions do have money and, especially, more than 118-million Americans as members. Sad to say, but that combination opens doors at congressional offices better than any tragic disease. Yet that door is also swinging open all day for many others, and it’s really only the message that’s repeated time and again that gets heard. I mean, do you really think Geico wants to buy that much ad time?
Remember, there was once a day when Sir Edmund Hillary could speak and the world hushed as he shared his tale about getting to the top of Everest. Today, that could be some guy or gal you meet at a party full of people and he or she can’t even manage to interrupt all the other chatter to get a word in.
Notes from Caucus
CUToday.info had more comprehensive coverage out of NAFCU’s Congressional Caucus than any other publication. But here are a couple of items from the Reporter’s Notebook that didn’t appear in our earlier reports:
Words From White House Chief of Staff
From Mick Mulvaney, White House Chief of Staff, director of the Office of Management and Budget, former acting chief of the CFPB, and former congressman:
- “I worked for Rick Perry back in 2012 during the presidential race and for three days we did really, really well.”
- “I did try desperately to change the name of the CFPB to the BCFP. That didn’t stick. I do have the only BCFP flag ever made.”
- Mulvaney said he offered this advice to one young Administration official about to make his first-ever presentation to President Trump. “I told him you have to be prepared to make your presentation, and then be ready to talk about everything else in the whole world besides your presentation.”
- Mulvaney’s full comments can be found here
Millennials ‘Worst Generation’ In History
From Jason Roe, political consultant and advisor to George W Bush, Mitt Romney and others:
- (In a bid to ensure he’s invited back again) “When I worked on Capitol Hill 10 years ago, NAFCU was considered CUNA’s little brother. But I think that has been reversed now.”
- “By the way, I paid off my student loans, and if (forgiving student debt) does become a thing, I am going to start an effort to reimburse those who paid off their loans. As I study Millennials, they are the worst generation in the history of the world, and it shouldn’t be a surprise, as they are the children of the previous worst generation in the world, the Baby Boomers. Hey, I had to work full-time in college. You have to struggle a little bit.”
- “Cincinnati is the deep south of the Midwest.”
- Roe had some interesting views on the prospects of Trump’s reelection that can be found here.
The Russian Threat
- From William R. Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence Center: “Vladimir Putin is the leader of an inferior country with no economy. But geopolitically and militarily, Russia is a threat. Does Russia threaten us with breaches of infrastructure and military-industrial? Yes.”
Evanina’s full remarks can be found here.
It’s On You
- Rep. Ted Budd said Trump made an appearance at one of his campaign events and helped fire up the crowd. As Trump walked off stage, Budd said he remarked, “If you lose this one, you’re a crappy politician.”
A Not-So-Mellow Warning
- Finally, while some credit unions in states that have legalized marijuana for medical and personal use have rushed to bring banking to those businesses, one person at Caucus had a warning about role credit unions may be playing in building substance addition.
- “Just two weeks ago a Surgeon General report focused on the threat of high potency marijuana,” said Garth Van Meter, director of legislative affairs with Smart Approaches to Marijuana. “I would argue that changes to banking regulations cannot be divorced from the impact on financial health. The potency of the concentrates is mind boggling, and it’s the result of legalization. If you want to pour gas on that fire, opening up cannabis to the banking industry is an accelerant…Now that potency has risen, the number of daily or near-daily users has risen to more than 30%. The goal of the industry is to create new instances of substance use disorder.”
The full story can be found here.
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief at CUToday.info. He can be reached at Frank@CUToday.infoor @FrankCUToday.