With no mention of board “action,” the agenda for next week’s open meeting of the currently one-member National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board lists only two briefings: one on the quarterly share insurance fund report and the other on the NCUA budget over the coming two years.
Since the president’s firings in April of the two Democrats on the NCUA Board – Todd Harper (also a former chairman) and Tanya Otsuka, who have sued to regain their seats – Kyle Hauptman, the board’s Republican chairman, has been the sole agency board member.
The agency has maintained that it can carry out its business with just Hauptman at the helm. But the agency’s own rules continue to show that “(t)he agreement of at least two of the three Board members is required for any action by the Board.” As for a potential notation vote, those procedural rules limit that type of voting to “administrative or time sensitive matters, for example, enforcement or interagency actions requiring prompt Board action matters.”
Typically, the NCUA Board approves its budgets – which are approved alongside funding mechanisms that impose fees on credit unions and allocate funds from the NCUSIF – by voting on them in open meetings following issuance of a draft for public comment and a public hearing. The hearing on this proposed budget was held Nov. 5; the public comment period ended Nov. 7.
To recap, the budget that NCUA staff proposed in September showed a 20.6% reduction in the agency’s overall budget from 2025 to 2026, with that reduction to be fueled mostly by a 23.1% cut in staffing levels.
About $239.6 million is proposed for total salary and benefits costs in 2026, down $71.1 million from 2025. The agency is also cutting the staff travel budgets 13.4%, or $3.1 million, to $74.2 million. Contracted services are being cut 34.1%, or $12.4 million, to about $24 million.
The three parts of the agency’s proposed, combined 2026 budget of $313.8 million are:
- a $292.4 million operating budget, down 23.5%, or about $90 million, from 2025 (with federal credit unions funding 38.2% of the total through the payment of operating fees, and the NCUSIF covering the remaining 61.8%);
- the capital budget, $18.1 million, up 146%, or $10.8 million, from 2025 (including, the agency said, $10 million for implementation of the NCUA’s 2026 reorganization plan along with investment in systems “to increase efficiency and meet other Administration priorities”); and
- Share Insurance Fund administrative budget, $3.3 million, down 41.6%, or $2.4 million, from 2025.
The proposed, combined budget for 2027 is about $344.7 million, up 9.8% from 2026; that includes an operating budget increase to $321 million, also up 9.8%.
The Dec. 18 open board meeting is slated for 10 a.m. eastern.
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