Executive Letter: More Advocacy in Action - Wisconsin Bankers Association

By Rose Oswald Poels

The banking industry has been very active this spring with our legislative advocacy at the state and federal level. I am excited to share that, once again, we had incredibly strong participation from Wisconsin bankers last week when WBA joined with ICBA for their annual Capital Summit in Washington, D.C. This year, 21 Wisconsin bankers, two ICBA staff members, and one person from FHLBank of Chicago joined Daryll and me for Congressional Hill visits on key banking industry legislation. Between our two spring Washington trips, we had 43 bankers (several of whom joined us for the first time) join WBA this year, which is a number we have not seen since pre-COVID years. Thank you all for listening to our requests to increase your personal involvement in these critical advocacy trips!

Like last month, the timing of our Hill visits last week Wednesday was fortuitous as both tax policy and cryptocurrency were hot topics in Washington D.C. As you see in the news, there is a lot of focus on passing the House reconciliation bill, labeled the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” and sending it to the Senate. This legislation is certainly not without a lot of controversy; however, when the tax portion was first published by the House Ways and Means Committee, WBA was very excited to see a modified version of the ACRE Act included. This is extremely significant because out of hundreds of requests for new tax law changes, only a handful were included and modified ACRE is one of them. Without significant grassroots involvement from the industry over the last several congressional sessions, I do not think this provision would have been included. I am pleased to share that currently Reps. Steil, Fitzgerald, Van Orden, and Pocan are co-sponsors of the stand-alone ACRE Act legislation.

In addition to discussing tax policy and the ACRE Act, there was a lot of dialogue with each Wisconsin congressional office on cryptocurrency. It is expected that the GENIUS Act in the Senate will be up on the floor for a vote this week, and the STABLE Act is expected to progress further in the House soon. Primarily our message was to mitigate stablecoin risks while protecting against community bank disintermediation. Other topics covered included Section 1071 legislation, Credit Card Competition Act, the Farm Bill, and Trigger Leads.

The Wisconsin bankers who joined Daryll Lund and me on this trip found it to be very educational and productive. Without question, WBA is more impactful when constituent bankers help deliver messages to elected officials. I encourage all of you to consider joining WBA next year for one of our two annual Washington Trips, or later this year when we meet with regulators (not legislators), October 16–17, 2025.