Even as the federal bureaucracy struggles with the impact of a regulatory freeze memo issued by the Trump Administration, the NCUA will be able to continue its rule-making without delay, agency public affairs specialist John Fairbanks said Tuesday.
The NCUA on Tuesday issued an explanation of its reasoning. Here’s what it boils down to:
- The Trump Administration issued a memo on Jan. 20 directing that executive agencies and departments cease rule-making and pull rules back from the Federal Register until they can be examined by a presidential appointee.
- As an independent regulator, the NCUA is not an executive agency and is not subject to the executive memo.
- However, the agency decided to comply with the spirit of the memo.
- On Thursday, Trump appointed board member J. Mark McWatters as acting chairman of the board.
- Since the NCUA now has a presidentially appointed head, the agency can continue rule making activities, even as it attempts to comply with the spirit of the memo.
Fairbanks said that all pending NCUA rules have been approved unanimously by the two-member board—McWatters and Democrat Rick Metsger.
“Since May 2016, all regulations approved by the NCUA Board have been required by statute or have provided federally insured credit unions with regulatory relief,” he said.
He cited agency rules dealing with fields-of-membership, and the advance notice of proposed rulemaking on alternative capital as examples of attempts to relieve the regulatory burden on credit unions.
“By moving forward with these rulemakings, NCUA is working to decrease regulatory burdens,” Fairbanks added.
CFPB Director Richard Corday last week said his agency is continuing its work and will not delay issuing regulations. The CFPB also is an independent agency, although its exact status is being fought in federal court.
Trump this week issued an executive order stating that agencies must delete two regulations for every one it issues. However, the agency made it clear that independent agencies are exempt from the order.
