A number of CUNA leaders participated in CUBroadcast interviews during this year’s CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference. See previous CUNA interviews here. 

Richard Gose, CUNA chief political officer, went into depth about “Advancing Communities.”

“We are not share to help our members. We are shy to talk about what we do for our members,” said Gose. “I hope that someone realizes that reaching out to a lawmaker is as easy as either sending an email or sending them a nice post on their social media. It’s never a bad thing to engage.”

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Trey Hawkins, CUNA deputy chief advocacy officer for political action, discussed the outlook for the 2022 mid-terms in such a divided year. 

"One of the things that brings everybody together on both sides of the aisle are credit unions," he said. "We really think credit unions can serve as a catalyst for bringing both parties together to put forth good legislation."

Jason Stverak, CUNA deputy chief advocacy officer for federal government affairs, discussed the state of credit union advocacy. 

The strength of credit unions is being able to work on a nonpartisan basis to advance members' priorities to serve their constituents and their communities," he said. 

Alexander Monterrubio, CUNA senior director of advocacy and counsel, shared what his outlook on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). 

“Director Chopra is planning on being aggressive,” said Monterrubio. “We can see an era where the CFPB is getting into a lot of areas that we expect, but also some that are not traditionally associated with the CFPB’s work. The impact is going to be direct for credit unions. The trickledown effect will always be rule making.”

Abigail Truhart, CUNA director of advocacy, provided a preview on her breakout session for best practices on Capitol Hill. 

“CUNA has a wonderful reputation on the Hill,” said Truhart. “We had two hill staffers join us and what talked from their perspective on what are the best practices. It’s meeting with a staffer and not the member themselves, what things we can tell our members to make sure the message resonates and the important ask gets to the member of Congress.”