Co-op Economy Proposed in Paper to Trump Posted by Association of Vermont Credit Unions on 7:31 PM

In a presidential transition paper sent to President-Elect Donald Trump today, the National Cooperative Business Administration outlined the many ways that cooperatives, including credit unions, can help answer some of the nation’s most critical challenges.

Called “Cooperating for a Better Tomorrow: Creating Economic Opportunity for Americans and People Around the World,” the transition paper unpacks the scope of influence of the cooperatives in the U.S. and asks the incoming Administration to consider the cooperative business model as a bi-partisan approach to federal policy making.

Encouraging close collaboration with the Congressional Cooperative Business Caucus and the Inter-Agency Working Group on Cooperative Development, the paper outlines key areas where the Administration could support cooperatives:

• tax reform
• worker ownership
• the USDA Rural Cooperative Development Grant (RCDG) program
• small business lending
• inclusion of co-ops in the 2017 Economic Census
• healthy and sustainable food access and the Global Food Security Act. 

“Cooperating for a Better Tomorrow reflects the value and power the cooperative business model has across many sectors of the American economy,” NCBA CLUSA president and CEO Judy Ziewacz said in a letter accompanying the transition paper.

Click here to read the full transition paper.