D.C. might currently stand for “disruption and chaos,” America’s Credit Unions President/CEO Jim Nussle told a record-breaking Governmental Affairs Conference crowd Monday morning, but credit unions have long served as disruptors to for-profit financial services that leave people behind.

“With all the chaos, all the disruption, we have to keep our heads. We have to embrace a strong, unified advocacy strategy, which we are doing,” he said. “And as we think about our own personal partisanship, this week we must be partisan for credit unions.”

The work credit unions do every day—as well as in the face of economic downtown and natural disasters—show their service as financial first responders, and Nussle said Americans need to understand that story even better going forward.

“Policymakers know we’re different, but they don’t always know why we’re different. Members of Congress are focused on lots of things, agendas to meet, promises to keep, re-election to think about,” he added. “So we have to remind them, tell them about the impact we have, because the real data that matters is what you do. Consumers would lose billions and billions of dollars if credit unions weren’t in the marketplace.”

He noted the recent independent study released last week showing changing the credit union tax status would mean $33 billion in lost tax revenue, $266 billion in GDP reduction, and 822,000 jobs lost over the next 10 years.

On the tax fight, Nussle, a former Congressman, chair of the House Budget Committee, and director of the Office of Management and Budget, shared thoughts on how it may unfold. Rather than an introduced bill or public hearing, he said tax writers may gather late at night in a desperate attempt to make the numbers work, with everything potentially on the table.

“We want those members to hear your voice while they’re sitting in that small room where they’re figuring out who they can get away with taxing,” he said. “Because remember: it’s not just a tax on credit unions. They would be taxing 140 million Americans who rely on credit union, they need to know that, and how that would impact the communities they serve.”

Nussle also encouraged credit union leaders to continue advocating for CFPB reform, the CFPB, protecting interchange, and fighting fraud that continues to rise in dollar loss and impact members. He also told those in attendance to stand strong in the face of credit union opponents who would seek to create divisions based on things like asset size, or product strategy.

“It’s very easy to think that what’s happening in our community, our credit union, is the only thing that matters. But credit unions face the same challenges across the country, so stay curious, stay interested, recognize something I’ve seen with all the people I talk to: there’s so much more that unifies us than divides us. Together with passion, purpose, and strength we can do just about anything.”