Congressional CU Champion Kanjorski Recovering From Heart Bypass Surgery

WASHINGTON – Congressman Paul Kanjorski, who introduced the credit union regulatory bill just last week, underwent triple heart bypass surgery yesterday at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, one of the foremost hospitals for coronary surgery. The operation was routinely scheduled and not the result of a heart attack, according to Kanjorski’s office. The surgery was scheduled after a physical Feb. 12 at the Office of the Attending Physician at the U.S. Capitol revealed that coronary heart disease has caused significant narrowing of three arteries feeding the 69-year-old lawmaker’s heart. Kanjorski will be in the hospital’s intensive care unit for the next day or two, then is expected to spend a week in the hospital, before returning to work in mid-April, following the spring Congressional recess. Kanjorski, the chief sponsor of HR 1151, the landmark 1998 CU Membership Access Act, introduced legislation last week to reduce regulatory burden on credit unions. The CU Regulatory Improvements Act, or CURIA, increase the allowable limit for member business loans; would enact a risk-based capital system for credit unions; allow credit unions to retain their select groups after converting to community charters; allow all credit unions to add underserved areas and make it harder for credit unions to convert to mutual savings banks.