Chair’s Message FOCUS ON ADVOCACY Wow! It has been a busy spring! As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, one of my aspirations as Chair during 2025 is the relentless support of and advocacy for community banks. Last month, over 500 community bankers from across the nation convened in Washington, D.C., for the ICBA Capital Summit. As Rebeca Romero Rainey, President and CEO of ICBA, stated in the April 2025 issue of Independent Banker, “When we come together on Capitol Hill, it demonstrates to members of Congress just how serious we are about advancing community banking for the betterment of their districts and our communities.” She further stated, “Every phone call we make to our members of Congress, every trip to Capitol Hill, and every letter we send falls on open ears and has an impact.” During our visits on Capitol Hill to our Virginia representatives in the House and Senate, we ensured that they were knowledgeable about the key issues that community banks are currently facing, including: • The CFPB’s Section 1071 rule. • Major tax legislation. • Taxing credit unions with assets of more than $1 billion. • Agricultural lending. • Community bank formation, growth, and tiered regulation. • Restricting the sale of mortgage “trigger leads.” • Ensuring stablecoin frameworks don’t harm community banks. • Opposing credit card routing mandates. If the representatives were not familiar with the issues, we educated them briefly, answered questions they had regarding the issues, proactively asked if they would co-sponsor specific bills (if they were not already a co-sponsor) and committed to following up with them. A component of how we shaped our message was by explaining the impact to the local district and voters. I dare say we collectively had an impact during this session of Congress, but follow-up is essential! TARA Y. HARRISON Chair, VACB, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Virginia National Bank, Charlottesville 4 The CommunityBanker
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