WASHINGTON–With the health care legislation now behind it, credit unions may get an opening for member business lending reform when the House of Representatives and Senate re-convene in mid-January.
Separate bills have been offered in both the House and the Senate that have bipartisan sponsors and that would lift the 12.25% cap on member business loans currently in place for credit unions to 25%. One goal, CU trade groups have told Credit Union Journal, however, is to have those bills included in language for other bills that have a higher priority and are likely to pass.
Credit union lobbyists are positioning an increase in the MBL cap as a means to create jobs, sure to be a hot-button issue in an election year.
“Since we have estimated that raising the CU MBL cap would create as many as 108,000 new jobs (and inject up to $10 billion into small business in the first year), our focus has been on adding the Senate MBL legislation to job creation legislation being developed in that body,” CUNA spokesman Pat Keefe told Credit Union Journal. “However, a jobs bill is not our only target. Any other appropriate legislative vehicle that presents itself–in either the Senate or the House–will be considered for the MBL provisions contained in either the Senate and House bills.”
The Senate introduced MBL legislation before it recessed last week, but the jobs bill that passed the House earlier this month did not include MBL provisions. A compromise on the jobs bill, should it be taken up and passed in the Senate, could include MBL changes, but various financial industry reform bills making their way through the legislature could also present themselves as appropriate avenues for MBL reform as well.
“The House is scheduled to come back Jan. 12... Senate action begins in earnest on Jan. 20, and will start what is likely to be a prolonged debate over legislation to increase the debt limit for a second time within a month or so,” Keefe noted. “So, our job now is to make sure that the Senate sponsors of MBL legislation receive thanks from credit unions and urge other senators to support the legislation as well. We will continue to urge House members to support House MBL legislation, particularly in including it in any appropriate vehicle that comes up.”
