The ranking Democrats on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday called for an inspector general investigation of the president’s recent firings of National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board Members Todd Harper and Tanya Otsuka.
“These firings are part of the President’s concerning attempts to skirt the rule of law, undermine independent agencies, and illegally purge the government of those who work for the American people,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said in a letter jointly sent to NCUA Office of Inspector General James Hagen. “The President’s actions threaten to paralyze the Board, create unnecessary legal risk for the agency, and harm the stability of our nation’s credit union system.”
Harper and Otsuka’s firings are the first carried out by President Donald Trump (R) at any of the federal prudential financial institution regulators of Senate-confirmed regulators, and they’re the first ever affecting NCUA Board members whose terms have yet to expire.
In their joint letter Tuesday, Warren and Waters requested information from the NCUA OIG about the board’s, “and by extension” the agency’s, ability to fulfill its mission with just one board member. “Specifically, we ask your office to investigate the NCUA’s Chairman’s authority to continue full agency operations with only one Board member,” they wrote, “and if doing so complies with the spirit and letter of the Federal Credit Union Act and its implementing regulations, including 12 C.F.R. § 791.2.” That citation refers to this provision of the NCUA’s rules of board procedure: “The agreement of at least two of the three Board members is required for any action by the Board.” They stated further that the board can only hold meetings if a quorum is available (per 12 C.F.R. § 791.2).
“To help us better understand the effect of the firings on the operations of the NCUA and its Board, and the legality of all actions taken by the NCUA since the firing of the two Board members, we ask that the NCUA Office of Inspector General (OIG) promptly conduct an investigation …,” they wrote.
Briefly, they are asking for:
- copies of all written communications and documents related to the firings and their implications;
- an outline of any actions taken by the NCUA Board on or after April 16 and whether they were conducted “in full compliance with relevant laws, regulations, and NCUA policies and precedents”; and
- an analysis of how a board consisting of a single board member may affect the NCUA’s operations, especially as it pertains to chartering, supervising, and insuring credit unions.
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