NCBA Continues to Strategically Position Advocacy Efforts

With the new Biden Administration, a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and the 117^th Congress with Democrats in charge of both the House and the Senate, NCBA will continue to work to strategically position NCBA’s advocacy efforts.

We continue our advocacy on Capitol Hill to educate Congress against negative policy responses to the pandemic (such as a ban on all debt collections) and also will work to ensure that such proposals as the Meaningful Attorney Involvement (MAI) safe harbor are not revived. We and our government relations firm will promote issues of interest to NCBA, such as past support for exempting stimulus payments from garnishment and the independence of the practice of law.

We will continue to work with our mutually aligned sister trade associations and other groups as well as our network of contacts in Congress and the new Biden Administration to protect against policies that could adversely impact attorneys practicing creditors’ rights law.

Engagement

For 2021, congressional engagement will remain bipartisan and focused on members of the Senate Banking, House Financial Service, Senate Judiciary and House Judiciary committees.  Engagement with Congress and the new Biden Administration will be tactical, comprehensive and leverage senior staff personal relationships maintained by us and our outside DC consultants.

Since many influential staff in the new Administration are not yet known, and Senate committee membership rosters have not yet been finalized, we will build on our existing advocacy work and seek to maximize NCBA’s influence through consistent engagement with Members of Congress and regulators. 

In 2020 we saw the Democratic led House pass the HEROS Act that included a debt collection moratorium, so it will come as no surprise that we may see similar legislation filed in the 117^th Congress. Despite simple majority legislative tools such as “reconciliation” the Senate’s Byrd Rule prohibits extraneous matters from being part of a reconciliation bill or resolution. While the term "extraneous matter" remains subject to considerable interpretation by the presiding officer, this rule, along with the filibuster rule, would require 60 members of the Senate to pass a bill. We are hopeful this will prevent a debt collection moratorium from being passed in a stand-alone or sweeping relief bill. Democratic Senators including Senators Manchin, Sinema and Tester continue to publicly support that the filibuster procedure remain in effect.

Clearly there will be a lot of advocacy work ahead as we navigate the new DC political reality. We remain focused on making sure that no policy riders are tacked on that can adversely impact our industry and in collaboration with our outside Government Relations Firm and NCBA grassroots efforts, we are ready to use targeted strategy to oppose any emerging detrimental legislative proposals.

Want to learn more? Join our Briefing Webinar: New Administration, Congress, Opportunities, and Challenges on February 18, 2021. .