Credit unions found their federal tax-exemption under fire last week during hearings before the House Ways and Means Committee. Three credit union witnesses testified, as did representatives of the banking industry, the IRS, and the GAO. Below are photos from the day of hearings.
Former NCUA Chairman Norman E. D'Amours awaits his turn to testify before the committee. D'Amours, whose own proposal for a Community Reinvestment Act-like plan was scrapped by his replacement, Dennis Dollar, pleaded with Congress to act, saying, 'Whatever actions might be taken to refocus the credit union system on its traditional core value, I am absolutely certain of one reality and I hope I can adequately convey to this committee and to the Congress,' said D'Amours, himself a former congressman. 'That reality is that any effective effort to get credit unions to act as a whole to do a better job serving low-income households will not come from within the credit union power structure as it exists today. If this Congress doesn't demand it, it won't happen."
CUNA witness Harriet May joins members of her panel in preparing to testify. The panel witnesses are (from left) Cutler Dawson of Navy FCU (for NAFCU); May (for CUNA); Jeff L. Plagge, CEO of First National Bank of Waverly, Waverly, Iowa, (for American Bankers Association); David E. Hayes, CEO of Security Bank, Dyersburg, Tennessee (for Independent Community Bankers of America); and Mark E. Macomber, CEO of Litchfield Bancorp, Litchfield, Connecticut (for America's Community Bankers).
