Independent Banker - January 2022 - 37

compliance burden with their
customers and encouraged them to
speak out. And they did.
Community bankers and their
advocates sent an astounding 700,000
letters from 227,000 people and 1,500
phone calls-the most successful
individual outreach campaign in ICBA
history. To date, this proposal is not
included in the reconciliation bill, but
the ICBA government relations staff is
remaining vigilant.
Last year, ICBA's dedicated advocacy
team helped more than 300,000
community bank advocates send more
than 930,000 letters to Congress.
Advocating for rural America
Community bankers sent more
than 48,000 letters in support of
the Enhancing Credit Opportunities
in Rural America Act (ECORA
S. 2202/H.R. 1977). This bipartisan
legislation, introduced last March,
would exempt interest income on
farm real estate and rural mortgage
loans from taxation, allowing
community banks to lower loan rates
and more effi ciently serve borrowers.
Sharing the truth about
credit unions
In 2021, ICBA's Wake Up campaign
called on policymakers and the public
to wake up to the risky practices,
costly tax subsidies and irresponsibly
lax oversight of the nation's credit
unions. The media campaign included
print and digital ads and a video
calling for hearings into credit unions'
tax subsidies.
ICBA chairman Robert Fisher also
joined with the National Taxpayer
Unions for an event exploring how
credit unions have overstepped the
bounds of their regulatory mandate
to serve people of modest means.
The result of these eff orts has been
more than 5,000 messages to the Hill
pushing for hearings.
Warning about the reporting
burden of Section 1071
ICBA also worked late into
December with community
bankers to communicate why the
Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau's (CFPB) proposed rule to
implement Section 1071 would
add a burdensome and costly
reporting requirement onto all
community bank small business
lenders. It would require the CFPB
to implement data collection and
reporting requirements for smallbusiness
lending.
The CFPB responds well to
data, facts and specifi cs, making it
essential for community bankers to
tell their banks' and small business
customers' stories that show why
the Section 1071 proposal is a poor
fi t. ICBA led the way in helping
community banks make their case,
including hosting a complementary
briefi ng in December to show
community bankers how to
personalize their letters. ICBA
anticipates a strong showing
of letters by the time the Jan. 6
deadline arrives.
The year ahead
While community bankers made
huge strides in advancing their
agenda through grassroots advocacy
in 2021, our work is not over. As
the second session of the 117th
Congress begins, ICBA will be
pushing hard on a number of issues.
We want the ILC loophole to be
closed. We want Congress to pass
the Secure and Fair Enforcement
Banking Act of 2019 (SAFE Act
S. 910, H.R. 1595), which would
create a safe harbor from federal
sanctions for fi nancial institutions
that serve cannabis-related
businesses (CRBs) and ancillary
businesses in states and other
jurisdictions where cannabis is legal.
We want to promote the importance
of ECORA. We want to push back
against the encroachment of credit
unions and Farm Credit System
lenders. And much more.
As always, ICBA stands at the
ready to protect the franchise value
of the nation's community banks and
develop tools to empower them to
speak up and be heard. 
Be Heard!
Find all the tools you need
to advocate for community
banks at icba.org/beheard
Aaron Stetter (aaron.stetter@
icba.org) is ICBA's executive
vice president of policy and
political operations
independentbanker.org Q 37
http://www.icba.org/beheard http://www.independentbanker.org
Independent Banker - January 2022

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