The credit union tax fight was front and center as America’s Credit Unions staff leaders spoke to CUBroadcast host Mike Lawson during the 2025 Governmental Affairs Conference. Each talked about the event’s primary message that changing the credit union tax status is a tax increase on 140 million Americans, and highlighted the ongoing “Don’t Tax My Credit Union” campaign to tackle the tax fight.

President/CEO Jim Nussle emphasized how telling our credit union stories is the most effective way to deal with the taxation threats, and why the “Don’t Tax My Credit Union” campaign is so important this year with current circumstances:

“There will be a tax bill this year because the 2018 Trump tax cuts expire. They’re trying to figure out what to extend and how to pay for it,” Nussle said. “Whenever they’re talking about that, we could easily be on the menu if we’re not at the table. So that’s what we’re trying to do: stay at the table, talk about the credit union difference, and advocate for our model.”

Chief Advocacy Officer Carrie Hunt echoed Nussle’s comments on the “Don’t Tax My Credit Union” campaign, emphasizing that using data and being consistently present to be effective when meeting with lawmakers:

“Policy is on our side. Data is on our side. But how we make sure that credit unions are not being harmed in those last minutes that that bill is being negotiated is what really matters,” Hunt said. “The only way that we can do that is to continue our drumbeat and make sure that we are just in the minds of our members of Congress at all times.” 

Chief Membership and Engagement officer Anthony Demangone discussed what advocacy looks like for each individual credit union and how best to build and leverage relationships with lawmakers:

“Representatives or Senators, they turn over and their staffers turn over. You may have told this story 74 times, but that legislative director? She just started, she hasn’t heard it yet,” Demangone said. “We’ve got to treat everybody as an opportunity to tell our story, and the story isn’t ‘don’t tax us.’ The story is that we do amazing things because we’re a financial cooperative.”

Chief Economist Mike Schenk discussed data points that will make an impact on Capitol Hill and how they drive home the credit union difference:

“We know from survey work that we’ve done that credit unions are much more likely to actually sit down with their members and talk to them about their financial situation (than banks). That’s one of the biggest drivers of financial well-being,” he explained. “The happy result of that is that credit union members across the credit spectrum are much less likely to be disrupted throughout any economic environment.”

Chief Association Services Officer Todd Spiczenski said he wanted attendees to “take away is that this isn’t a one time thing. Talking and telling your story about your credit union doesn’t just happen when you come to GAC. It should be happening every day back in your community,” he said. “We’ve got a great story to tell, but don’t just tell it once. Keep telling it when you get back.”

See the full episodes here: