Jim Nussle, former Iowa Republican congressman and director of the White House Office of Management and Budget for President George W. Bush, has been named the new president/CEO of CUNA, the trade group announced on Tuesday.

CUNA said Nussle, an eight-term congressman who served as chairman of the House Budget Committee, starts his new role in the next few weeks. Nussle won the Iowa Republican primary for governor but lost the general election in 2006. He was appointed as OMB director in 2007 and served until 2009 when President Bush left office. He later founded a public affairs media and strategic consulting firm called The Nussle Group.

“I have witnessed first-hand the enthusiastic advocacy of the nation's nearly 7,000 credit unions and I look forward to working with them to ensure the credit union message and policy priorities are clearly understood in Washington and nationwide,” Nussle said. “At a time when trustworthiness is at a premium, the individuals who make up the more than 100 million memberships at credit unions.”

Former President/CEO Bill Cheney left CUNA in June for the CEO job at the $10.3 billion SchoolsFirst Credit Union in Santa Ana, Calif. CUNA Chief Economist Bill Hampel served as interim president/CEO.

“After an exhaustive search, in which nearly 100 highly qualified candidates were considered, the CUNA Board has unanimously accepted and certified the executive search committee's recommendation of Jim as the next chief executive of our association,” said CUNA Chairman Dennis Pierce.

“We are thrilled to welcome Jim to CUNA and believe his experience at the highest levels of Congress and the federal executive branch, as well as his time in association leadership, positions him well to lead our association and represent our members,” said Susan Streifel, chair of the CUNA Board's executive search committee and vice chair of the CUNA Board.

Nussle is also a member of the “Campaign to Fix the Debt” steering committee, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to putting America on a better fiscal path, according to the campaign's official website.

“We have come together from a variety of social, economic and political perspectives, around the common belief that America's growing federal debt threatens our future and that we must address it,” the campaign's official website read.

NAFCU President/CEO Dan Berger congratulated Nussle on his appointment.

“We look forward to working with Jim as we continue to address those issues impacting the credit union industry,” Berger said. “Jim's experience and insight will be a great foundation for his new position.”