Former U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette passed away on Wednesday night after battling pancreatic cancer. He was 62. Heralded by the credit union movement for his work fighting for CUs on Capitol Hill, LaTourette was one of the original co-authors of HR 1151 – the Credit Union Membership Access Act.
The Ohio Republican had served the state's 14th and 19th districts from 1995-2013. LaTourette had previously worked as an attorney in private practice, as well as a public defender and County Prosecutor for Lake County, Ohio, before serving nearly two decades in Congress.
LaTourette's magnum opus for credit unions, HR 1151, codifying credit unions' ability to serve multiple groups, and essentially overturning a Supreme Court decision on the same matter. After being introduced in March 1997 – the bill, co-authored with Pennsylvania Democrat Paul Kanjorski, flew through the House (by a vote of 408-11) and Senate just months after the high court's ruling made the issue mission critical for credit unions. It was signed into law in August of 1998, by President Bill Clinton.
LaTourette also sponsored other CU-friendly legislation, most notably attempts to pare back the cap on member business lending and other compromise amendments to HR 1151 that were politically necessary to drive the bill through the process.
According to court documents, the former house member's battle with pancreatic cancer began in 2012 after consulting physicians at George Washington University Hospital with gastrointestinal complaints. After receiving an MRI scan, a growth was found on his pancreas but diagnosis and treatment was never followed up on by the Office of the Attending Physician of the United States Congress.
Two years later LaTourette was diagnosed with the cancer by a family physician. LaTourette and his attorneys began the process of filing a medical malpractice suit alleging a failure by Congress' doctors in properly following procedures for diagnosis and treatment.
According to a petition filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, LaTourette and his wife Jennifer had requested depositions from the former Congressman regarding the lawsuit be recorded by oral and videotaped examination "in the best interests of all parties to preserve the deposition testimony of Mr. LaTourette."
