Congressional leaders did not include the provision requiring increased financial institution reporting to the Internal Revenue Service in the reconciliation legislation unveiled last week.
The provision was also absent from the White House framework of the legislation released on Oct. 28.
The Credit Union National Association and credit unions helped generate more than 785,000 messages to Capitol Hill sharing concerns with the proposal.
“Credit unions and their members made their voices heard loud and clear over these past few months, and the result is a victory for all consumers,” CUNA President and CEO Jim Nussle said. “CUNA, Leagues, and credit unions engaged Congress continuously during this process and showed them that this proposal would have hurt consumers, harmed financial inclusion efforts, and created serious data privacy concerns. This is a clear-cut example of our fierce, bold 360-degree advocacy in action.”
The proposal would have required financial institutions to submit reports of most account transactions, which CUNA officials said was an overreach that would create cybersecurity concerns with the government hosting the data.
CUNA, along with the American Association of Credit Union Leagues, called on credit unions to comment on the proposal. As a result, hundreds of members of Congress wrote to Treasury leaders with their opposition to the increased reporting as a result of this CUNA-League engagement. Six credit union champions introduced bills to prevent the proposal’s implementation.