Late Sunday evening, the House Budget Committee narrowly passed the budget reconciliation bill with a 17-16 vote. An additional four members voted “present”—Republican representatives from Texas, South Carolina, Georgia, and Oklahoma who on Friday had voted against the bill.

This counts as a step forward for protecting credit unions’ tax-exempt status, as the bill does not make any changes in that area. From here, the bill will move on to the House Rules Committee before going to the full House for a vote. While with the House Rules Committee, the bill may, however, see some last-minute changes to bridge the intra-party disagreements. The committee has scheduled a meeting for 1 AM ET (yes, AM) starting on Wednesday, May 21st to discuss the bill as there is hope that the House will yet vote on it prior to Memorial Day weekend.

One of the representatives who had voted against the bill on Friday, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), indicated that the bill “does not yet meet the moment,” but allowed the bill to advance with his “present” vote out of “respect for the Republican Conference and the President.”

To the relief of credit unions, his objections seem to stem around Medicaid and green energy tax credits, hopefully signaling the credit union tax exemption is not a sticking point.

“The lack of unanimity amongst Republicans in the Budget Committee vote suggests changes will need to be made in the Rules Committee to get the votes necessary to pass on the House floor,” America’s Credit Unions (ACU) said. In addition to the tax exemption status being left alone, the national trade association supports the bill as it would decrease the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau’s (CFPB) authority to draw funds from the Federal Reserve from 12 percent down to 5 percent, meaning any additional funds would need to be appropriated by Congress. The bill will also “require the CFPB to return Civil Penalty Fund money back to the Treasury after payment to direct victims only.”

Although the outlook appears solid for the credit union industry, America’s Credit Unions is still campaigning hard this week to ensure Congress understands the role of credit unions and the importance of the tax-exempt status.

“In the 91 years since the Federal Credit Union Act became law, credit unions have consistently held less than 10% share of the banking market by assets while serving 142 million Americans—over 1/3 of the U.S. population. In the past 30-plus years, the largest banks have seen their share of assets rise from 41% to 75%,” the ACU’s message to House members read.