WASHINGTON – Community activists last week renewed their call to expand the Community Reinvestment Act to include credit unions, just as a new partisan fight was breaking out over CRA, a long-time favorite of Democrats but not Republicans.
John Taylor, president of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, urged a House subcommittee to pass legislation introduced last year that would add credit unions, insurance companies, investment companies and others to CRA, which now requires banks and S&Ls to make investments and loans in the communities they serve.
“We need to add CRA all financial institutions,” said Taylor, who also suggested that CRA be expanded from the current monitoring of home lending to include monitoring of business loans and deposit-taking from inner city, poor and minority communities.
“Credit unions are a no-brainer,” said Taylor, who was testifying at a hearing of the House Financial Institutions Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit.
Taylor’s remarks came as Republicans on the panel, who have opposed the majority Democrats’ agenda, were introducing a bill that would repeal CRA. “I believe it should be significantly scaled back or abolished altogether,” said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif. Republicans are broadly opposed to the Democrats’ financial services reform bill and were virtually unanimous in their opposition to the health care reform bill that passed last month.
The bill to expand CRA to include credit unions is unlikely to be voted on this year but is widely expected to be introduced in the next Congress.
