Senators Concerned CDFI Fund May Be Circumventing Regulatory Process

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This article first appeared on CUCollaborate

The leaders of the Senate Community Development Finance Caucus are questioning whether CDFI Fund officials are short-circuiting the regulatory process as they consider major changes to the program.

“Stakeholders have expressed concern that the publishing of the new CDFI certification application and guidance by the Office of Management and Budget under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) on November 4, 2022, may have been procedurally insufficient,” Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Mike Crapo, R-Id., wrote in a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday.

Context

In proposing changes to the CDFI application and certification process using the PRA, Treasury and CDFI Fund officials did not have to go through a lengthy regulatory process before adopting the updates.

The proposed changes were issued in November and comments were solicited. The fund expects to use the new certification and application process starting on April 3.

Concerns from CU groups

Financial trade groups also have questioned that process, with credit union groups contending that the new certification requirements could make it impossible for some credit unions to become certified or recertified.

In their letter to Yellen, the senators also said that some within the CDFI community have expressed concern that industry input is not being considered.

Author

  • David Baumann

    David Baumann established and edited the Washington Credit Union Daily website before it was put on hiatus while he served as the editor of the regulatory and legislative blog at CUCollaborate. Before starting Washington Credit Union Daily, David was the Washington correspondent for the Credit Union Times. A veteran Washington reporter, he has spent his career writing and editing for many of the capital’s leading publications, including CongressDaily, National Journal magazine and Congressional Quarterly Weekly. He was part of a team that won a 2005 National Headliner Award for a special issue of National Journal on “The State of Congress.” He holds a B.A. in political science from The George Washington University and an M.A. in journalism from Indiana University.

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