WASHINGTON CUNA reported this morning that it made $200,000 in congressional campaign contributions last month, just as members of both parties were preparing to reintroduce the bill to raise the cap on member business lending again.
CUNA, which spent more than $4 million on congressional campaigns in the last elections, contributed $135,000 to affiliates of both parties and to key congressional leadership committees in January.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee, Republican National Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee all received $15,000 contributions. Also receiving contributions were key leadership committees like the: New Democrat Coalition PAC ($5,000); Blue Dog PAC ($5,000) Moderate Democrats PAC ($5,000); House Conservatives Fund ($5,000); Republican Mainstreet Partnership ($5,000) and South Dakota First PAC ($1,000).
Also receiving campaign contributions were California Rep. Ed Royce, the chief sponsor of the MBL bill ($2,500) and Colorado Sen. Mark Udall, who led the MBL fight in the Senate last year ($5,000).
The new outpouring of campaign funding comes as a bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced bills to raise the MBL cap and to allow credit unions to raise supplementary forms of capital. Both bills have been introduced in previous congresses and failed to pass.
