WASHINGTON - As part of the critical campaign to save credit union membership powers a decade ago credit unions had to give some things up, now its time to recoup, insisted Pennsylvania Congressman Paul Kanjorski during CUNA’s GAC last week.
“Ten years ago, another part of the financial services industry though they had the credit union movement on the ground and they were putting their heels on their throats,” the Pennsylvania lawmakers recalled about the banks Supreme Court victory invalidating NCUA’s multiple groups policy.
“We’re in this process of putting on another fight this year,” said Kanjorski, a chief sponsor of HR 1151 and of two new regulatory relief bills for credit unions that would roll-back some of the HR 1151 provisions, like limits on member business loans and serving the underserved.
The latest effort, said the Pennsylvania Democrat, just like the previous one, is a bipartisan initiative, with large numbers of both Democrats and Republicans among the 144 House sponsors of CURIA. “My co-sponsor is (Republican) Ed Royce. We’re philosophically different, but as far as credit unions are concerned we have a common bond,” he said.
Kanjorski explained why he introduced a new regulatory relief bill for credit unions, called the CU Regulatory Relief Act, just as the House was holding its first hearing on CURIA, saying the new bill may be easier to pass than CURIA, which has been stalled for five years.
He said both CURIA and his new bill will correct some of the things that credit unions had to bargain away as part of HR 1151, which was passed in an emergency mode–overturning the Supreme Court ruling that could have jeopardized many credit unions. “There’s a lot of corrections that are necessary. This bill will correct some things that were slipped into HR 1151,” explained Kanjorski.
