ICBA Advocacy Priorities 2026 - Texas
Digital Assets: Ensure Regulatory Frameworks Preserve Community Bank Lending
With the GENIUS Act, Congress took the first step in restricting the payment of interest and yield by payment stablecoin issuers. We urge Congress to extend the prohibition on payment of interest, yield, and “rewards” on payment stablecoins to affiliates, exchanges and other digital asset market participants.
A strengthened prohibition will maintain payment stablecoins’ intended purpose—payments—and help avoid a flight of FDIC-insured domestic deposits to global crypto conglomerates, which do not have the same regulatory oversight or local commitment as community banks.
The research clearly shows that payment of yield, interest or rewards on payment stablecoin holdings could reduce community bank lending capacity. Based on new macroeconomic modeling, ICBA estimates that the growth of the stablecoin market resulting from payment of yield or interest on stablecoins will significantly reduce community banks’ ability to support local lending needs. A $1.3 trillion reduction of the $4.8 trillion in total deposits held by community banks could result in an $850 billion decline in lending activity.
Read more: Legislative Update - Stablecoins (Updated Feb 2026)
Read more: Regulatory Update - Digital Assets Regulations (Updated Feb 2026)
Oppose Credit Card Routing Mandates and Rate Caps
Oppose the Credit Card Competition Act, which would create new credit card routing mandates and force a costly overhaul of the payments landscape.
The legislation could end credit card reward programs and reduce access to credit for consumers for the exclusive benefit of the largest merchants.
Oppose 10% rate cap or other government price controls, which would result in reduced credit access, especially for lower- and middle-income borrowers.
Read more: Legislative Update - Credit Card Competition (Updated Feb 2026)
Read more: Legislative Update - Credit Card Rate Cap (Updated Feb 2026)
Support Community Bank Formation, Growth, and Tiered Regulation
The Housing for the 21st Century Act (H.R. 6644), which passed the House on a strong bipartisan vote, contains community bank regulatory relief, including fewer restrictions on holding custodial and reciprocal deposits; an 18-month exam cycle, alternating limited-scope exams, and combined exams for well-rated banks with less than $6 billion in assets; and a pilot program to provide capital and regulatory flexibility for de novo banks, among other provisions.
The Main St. Capital Access (H.R. 6955) includes provisions to lower the range of the community bank leverage ratio, or CBLR, to between 6 and 8 percent and make it available to banks with up to $15 billion in assets; create an independent review of exam findings; and promote tiered regulation based on a bank’s risk profile and business model, among other provisions.
Read more: Legislative Update - Community Bank Regulatory Relief (Updated Feb 2026)
Tax Large Credit Unions with Assets of More Than $1 Billion
ICBA advocates for taxation of credit unions with assets of $1 billion and above.
Many of today’s tax-subsidized credit unions are multi-billion-dollar institutions that are the functional equivalent of commercial banks, competing in the same markets for the same customers and offering the same services.
Last year, this wasteful and outmoded tax subsidy financed a record number of acquisitions of taxpaying community banks. Each acquisition reduces tax revenues for federal, state, and local governments while cutting off a critical source of small-business and agricultural lending for local communities.
Taxing these large credit unions would raise billions of dollars annually and help restore a balanced and competitive financial landscape for the benefit of consumers and small businesses.
Read more: Regulatory Update - Credit Unions (Updated Feb 2026)
Support for Agricultural Lending and Rural America
A robust farm bill is vital in helping community banks sustain farmers and ranchers and rural communities.
The new farm bill should strengthen commodity programs and enhance crop insurance. Further, the bill must increase USDA guaranteed farm loan limits and provide quicker loan approvals.
ICBA opposes the Farm Credit System’s (FCS’s) aggressive powers expansion into non-farm financing, as provided in the current legislative text. FCS’s broad agenda would permit (i) investments in essential community facilities without prior regulatory approval; (ii) financing of businesses that only tangentially serve aquaculture; (iii) home mortgages in communities with populations of up to 10,000; and (iv) financing of non-farm businesses through investment corporations.
The FCS’s mission as a tax-advantaged government sponsored enterprise (GSE) is to serve agriculture. It must not be allowed to siphon off small business loans from community banks.
Read more: Legislative Update - Farm Bill (Updated Feb 2026)
Deposit Insurance
Our nation’s federal deposit insurance system is critical to promoting depositor confidence in the banking system and protecting individual and business deposits at community banks.
ICBA has historically supported programs that provide increased deposit insurance for noninterest bearing accounts to prevent disruptive shifts in deposit funding, especially for small businesses.
ICBA believes costs associated with any reforms to deposit insurance should be borne by the institutions that create the most systemic risk for the Deposit Insurance Fund and benefit from implicit guarantees.
ICBA strongly opposes broad special assessments for community banks when the FDIC utilizes the systemic risk exception to resolve large, risky, and TBTF banks.
Read more: Deposit Insurance Principals
Read more: Regulatory Update - Deposit Insurance (Updated Feb 2026)
Small Business Loan Data Collection (Section 1071)
ICBA strongly opposes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s 1071 rule and the underlying statute, which requires lenders to collect and report extensive personal data on small business credit applicants to the federal government.
ICBA appreciates provisions of the CFPB’s November 2025 proposed rule, with recommendations for further changes. The rule would exempt community banks that originate fewer than 1,000 small business loans (ICBA recommends exempting all banks with less than $10 billion in assets); define a “small business” as one with annual gross revenue of less than $1 million; and require collection of fewer data points.
ICBA supports legislative efforts both to fully repeal Section 1071 and to reform the statute so fewer community banks and small businesses are harmed by intrusive and overly burdensome data collection and reporting requirements.
Support H.R. 976/S. 557, the 1071 Repeal to Protect Small Business Lending Act, sponsored by Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX) and Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) to fully repeal Section 1071.
Support H.R. 941, the Small LENDER Act, sponsored by Rep. French Hill (R-AR), and the PROTECTED Act (S. 2352), sponsored by Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL). Both bills would reform Section 1071 so fewer community banks and fewer small businesses must comply.