Vermont's Bernard Sanders, the leading advocate of credit unions in the House who was elected to the Senate last month, won't be serving on the Banking Committee, where he hoped to introduce the CU Regulatory Improvements Act. But Sanders, who has vowed to introduce CURIA in the early days of the 110th Congress, will still be able to champion the credit union cause in the Senate.
Sources said the banking lobby was influential in keeping Sanders, the self-proclaimed socialist, off the banking panel because of his ardent criticism of banks and the potential for mischief he posed.
The Banking Committee will be chaired by Connecticut Democrat Christopher Dodd and will include three newly elected freshmen Democrats, who were appointed to the panel by soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid; Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Jon Tester of Montana and Robert Casey of Pennsylvania.
Because of the Democratic takeover of the Senate, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, who chaired the panel in the last Congress, will become the committee's ranking Republican next year.
