With vacancies and terms expiring, President-elect Donald Trump will have the opportunity to nominate two—and possibly all three—members of the NCUA board during his first year in office.
Trump’s first move may be to choose current board member J. Mark McWatters as chairman of the NCUA board if McWatters is willing to continue to serve on the board.
The board currently has one vacancy and the president is permitted to fill two of the three slots on the board with members of his own political party.
President Obama has nominated John Herrera, senior vice president for Latino and Hispanic Affairs at the Self-Help Credit Union to fill the one vacancy.
“The Herrera nomination is certainly dead at this point,” said Dennis Dollar, principal of Dollar Associates, LLC in Birmingham, Ala. and former chairman of the NCUA board. Republicans are likely to sit on most—if not all—of President Obama’s nominations in order to allow Trump to fill vacancies with his own choices.
However, Dollar added that Herrera still could end up on the board. Just not yet.
Trump is likely to fill the vacancy with a Republican—giving the party the majority on the board.
Trump still could select Herrera to fill the Democratic vacancy that will occur when current Chairman Rick Metsger’s term expires in August 2017.
Or he could reappoint Metsger to the position, if Metsger wants to remain on the board.
The third board member, McWatters has been nominated to the Export-Import Bank, but the nomination has not moved in the Senate and with the election of a new president, it may remain stalled.
If McWatters does move to the Ex-Im Bank, Trump would be able to nominate his successor.
If McWatters doesn’t move to the Ex-Im Bank, he could become NCUA Board chairman because the president has the power to select the chairman and that choice does not have to be confirmed by the Senate.
“The first thing that I see the Trump White House doing would be to name McWatters as the Chairman, said former NCUA Board Chairman Geoff Bacino, now a partner with Bacino & Associates. “This could be done as soon as January 21, 2017.”
Dollar agreed.
“If history holds true, it is likely that Trump will make the sitting Republican board member McWatters into NCUA Chairman shortly after he is sworn in,” he said. “The second board member nominated in 2017 will be another Republican, probably much more aligned with McWatters than with the [former board chairman Debbie] Matz and Metsger approach at NCUA.”
That would be fine with Marvin Umholtz, president/CEO of Umholtz Strategic Planning & Consulting Services in Olympia, Wash.
“Mr. McWatters’ thoughtful policymaking remains sorely needed on the NCUA Board at this time,” he said.
But Paul Gentile, president/CEO of the, president/CEO of the Cooperative Credit Union Association, said it is difficult to determine whether Republicans or Democrats are better board members.
“I think it’s about the individual,” he said. “These days though the party is likely more important as more initiatives are driven on hard party lines as both sides have become more polarized.”
CUNA has urged the Trump Transition Team to place a high priority on board membership.
“I encourage the Trump-Pence transition team to focus on these vacancies in preparation for the president-elect to nominate NCUA Board candidates as soon as possible,” CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle said in a letter to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who heads Trump’s transition team.
