CUNA Taps Tax Committee Insider As ChiefLobbyist

WASHINGTON - (03/20/06) – CUNA is expected to announce asearly as Monday it has hired the top staffer of a key member of thetax-writing House Ways and Means Committee as its new chieflobbyist, sources told The Credit Union Journal. The hiring of JohnMagill, chief of staff to California Congressman Wally Herger, thethird ranking member of the tax-writing committee, will give thecredit union lobby increased influence on the panel. Herger, a10-term Republican, could be in the running for chairman of theimportant congressional committee after this year’sretirement of Californian Bill Thomas, a sometime critic of creditunions. Magill will fill a void at the top of CUNA’scongressional lobby created with December’s departure ofchief lobbyist John McKechnie and senior lobbyist Gary Kohn, whoboth moved over to NCUA.