Our Government Relations and Public Policy division concentrates on developing, growing, and sustaining international, federal, state, and local government partnerships and alliances aligned with HOPE programs and initiatives, and monitors, supports, and participates in public policy forums around financial literacy matters such as: financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, small business and economic development, homeownership, credit, savings, money management, financial disaster preparedness and recovery, investor education, and financial wellness.
HOPE influences government policy
Following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, HOPE worked with the federal government to draft the first-ever financial disaster response and recovery policy. In 2008, HOPE was responsible for financial literacy becoming the policy of the U.S. federal government under the President George W. Bush Administration.
In 2010, President Obama created the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability. Also created under this administration in 2013 was the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans. Operation HOPE’s Founder and CEO, John Hope Bryant, served on both of these councils.
In January 2016, our mission inspired the renaming of a building on the White House campus by then Treasury Secretary Jack Lew of the Obama administration, when the U.S. Treasury Annex Building was renamed the Freedman’s Bank Building.
Through our award-winning HOPE Inside programming model, HOPE is the only organization certified by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council to operate within a FDIC-insured bank branch, and to receive Community Reinvestment Act credit for the bank.
In February 2021, Operation HOPE announced its Investors’ Bill of Rights to address the greater need for individual investor protections. Authored by Operation HOPE Founder, Chairman & CEO, John HOPE Bryant and Jay Clayton, former Securities and Exchange Commission Chair, the Investors’ Bill of Rights is a call to financial institutions to provide greater financial literacy, knowledge, and transparency for retail investors.
Operation HOPE currently maintains alliances
with the following federal government departments
U.S. Federal Trade Commission – National Consumer Protection Week
U.S. Department of Interior – National Parks Service
U.S. Department of Justice
U.S. Department of State – Peace Corps; Innovation Hub
U.S. Social Security Administration
U.S. Department of Education White House Initiative on HBCUs
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
U.S. National Credit Union Administration
U.S. Department of Labor – Apprenticeship
U.S. Corporation for National Community Service
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
U.S. Federal Communications Commission
U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
U.S. Agriculture – Rural Development
U.S. Office of Personnel Management – CFC
U.S. Defense – Military One Source, Military Family Emergency Preparedness
U.S. Department of Treasury – Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
U.S. Federal Reserve System
U.S. Federal Emergency Management Administration
U.S. Small Business Administration
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Department of Treasury – Financial Literacy and Education Commission
U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
U.S. Department of Treasury – Internal Revenue Service
U.S. Department of Commerce – Patent and Trademark Office
U.S. Department of Commerce – Economic Development Administration
U.S. Department of Commerce – Minority Business Development Agency