Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., announced Monday he will not run for re-election in 2024. Cardin—chair of the Senate Small Business Committee—has served in the Senate since 2007, prior to that he served in the House representing Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District starting in 1987. 

The Senate is in Washington, D.C., this week and will consider judicial nominations, while the House is in recess. The Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee will conduct several hearings this week of interest to credit unions.

CUNA announced the appointment of Alex Catanese as its newest director of advocacy. Catanese will help manage the association’s relationships with Democrats on a variety of key advocacy issues in his role at CUNA. He previously served as CUNA’s associate director for political outreach.

CUNA has serious reservations about the conclusion of a Government Accountability Office study relating to the regulation of depository institutions, as it makes several troublesome recommendations about the federal financial regulatory structure.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will conduct the next meeting of its Credit Union Advisory Council (CUAC) May 17, a discussion of "broad policy matters related to the bureau's Unified Regulatory Agenda and general scope of authority," according to the agenda.

CUNA urged Congress to take action on data security in order to ensure consumers’ data privacy, and submitted a letter outlining concerns in advance of a Thursday data privacy hearing, held by a Senate Energy and Commerce subcommittee.

The failure of numerous digital asset companies over the last year, has made crystal clear the need for a comprehensive regulatory framework to govern the digital assets system, CUNA wrote this week for the record of a House subcommittee hearing on regulatory gaps in digital assets.

A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers reintroduced the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act in the House and Senate Wednesday, bills that would provide protections for financial institutions serving cannabis-based businesses where it is legal.

The House Financial Services Committee passed the CUNA-supported the CFPB Transparency and Accountability Reform Act (H.R. 2798) Wednesday night, which would make CUNA and League-supported changes to the CFPB's structure, funding, and more.