WASHINGTON — CUNA reported Monday it made $188,000 in campaign contributions last month, much of it to innocuous-sounding groups like "PAC to the Future," "Wild and Wonderful PAC" and "Prosperity PAC," allowing the credit union lobby to effectively give twice the legal $10,000 limit to some committee chairmen and other congressional leaders.
"A lot of what's happening in Congress is really going to focus on the leaders of the committees," Richard Gose, senior vice president of political affairs for CUNA, told Credit Union Journal of his group's campaign contributions to so-called leadership PACs.
Leadership PACs allow lobbying groups--which are limited to contributing $10,000 to any candidate's personal campaign PAC--to make a separate contribution of as much as $10,000 to a campaign committee operated for congressional leaders, which can then be used to support other candidates.
Federal Election Commission reports show CUNA made contributions in recent weeks of $2,500 to PAC to the Future (operated by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi); $2,500 to Wild and Wonderful PAC (Rep. Shelly Moore Capito, the Republican chairwoman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions); $1,000 to Prosperity PAC (House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan); $2,500 to New York Jobs PAC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel); $3,000 to Fearless PAC (Jared Polis, member of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee); $1,000 to Leadership for Today and Tomorrow PAC (Rep. Xavier Becerra, a Democrat and senior member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee); and $2,500 to build America PAC (Rep. Gregory Meeks, a Democrat and senior member of the Financial Services Committee).
These leadership contributions come as CUNA is lobbying Capitol Hill to retain the tax exemption for credit unions amid an impending tax reform bill.
CUNA, which operates one of the most active PACs on Capitol Hill, has spent $1.3 million on campaign funding through the first nine months of the 2013-14 election cycle and is on pace to top last cycle's $4 million in campaign spending, according to Gose. In comparison, the American Bankers Association's BankPAC has spent just less than $1.2 million through the first nine months of the campaign cycle.
