WASHINGTON With Congress in recess, CUNA is hoping that when legislators do return to Washington their hectic schedules will help tax reform get passed as part of a larger package of bills.
Once Congress is back in session next month, legislators will have to pass a continuing resolution on an appropriations bill, while a farm bill is still in the works and another fight over the debt ceiling looms large, said Richard Gose, CUNA’s SVP of political affairs, speaking during a CUNA press call.
CUNA’s lobbyists have heard that tax reform may come wrapped into a larger package of bills, he said.
“How many pieces of legislation actually get passed into law these days? Not a lot,” said Gose. “You’ve heard in the past opinions about tying tax reform into a continuing resolution or the debt ceiling, so in that regard we have to be very careful about any legislation that must move that a tax reform bill could be attached to, because we know that right around the corner comes January, and that will give us an election year, which makes it much more difficult to pass major tax reform the closer you get to November.”
The current Congressional recess may actually help CUNA-affiliated CUs make progress with their “Don’t Tax My CU” campaign.
“It’s totally different back home than it is in Washington,” said John Magill, CUNA’s EVP-government affairs. “It’s Mach 3 when they’re back here trying to go to two committee hearings at the same time and caucus votes and fundraises and those things but it’s a lot quieter back home, so we urge our credit unions to visit their members of Congress at town hall meetings, go up to them in the Safeways or wherever they might find them and say, Please don’t tax us this fall.’”
Gose said tax reform continues to be front and center in the halls of Congress, and the agency expects the House to see a bill in committee sometime early in the fall, though he was not sure if the Senate would follow the same schedule.
Gose added that CUNA has spent Congress’s summer recess pushing the “Don’t Tax” campaign though social media, and is planning multiple “Hike the Hill” events for the fall once legislators are back in session. While legislators will be in session only for nine days in September, CUNA has 27 hikes planned for September and October.
