CUNA strongly supports funding amounts for the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund and NCUA’s Community Development Revolving Loan Fund (CDRLF), it wrote to a Senate Appropriations subcommittee Tuesday. The Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government conducted a hearing on the FY22 budget for the Department of the Treasury.

President Joe Biden’s budget request for FY22 includes $320 million for the CDFI Fund and $2 million for the CDRLF.

The CDFI Fund makes capital grants, equity investments and awards for technical assistance to CDFIs.

“The CDFI Fund uses small amounts of federal dollars to leverage significant amounts of private and non-federal dollars… The CDFI Fund is being used to grow local economies and serve the most economically distressed communities in the nation,” the letter reads. “Fully funding the CDFI Fund is a good investment by the federal government. Good paying jobs lead to more tax revenue and less dependence on the federal social safety net.”

The CDRLF assists credit unions serving low-income communities to provide financial services, stimulate economic activities and operate more efficiently.

“The CDRLF usually receives requests that greatly exceed available funds and CUNA is concerned that an elimination of this fund will result in fewer low-income credit unions having access to needed capital to provide critical services to low-income credit union members,” the letter reads.