Mississippi Senator Lott, Who Shaped NCUA, to Step Down

WASHINGTON – Mississippi’s senior Senator Trent Lott, who helped shape NCUA by bringing in former NCUA Chairman Dennis Dollar, yesterday announced he plans to resign his Senate seat at the end of the year.
 
The 66-year-old Republican was a big friend to credit unions, as he told a delegation from CUNA and his home state during a 1994 tour of his new office the day he became Senate Majority Leader. Lott played a key role in getting quick Senate passage of HR 1151, the CU Membership Access Act, in 1998. But perhaps his biggest influence on credit unions was the appointment of his friend and fellow Mississippi politician Dennis Dollar to the NCUA Board, where Dollar served for seven years, the last four as chairman.
 
Lott spent his entire adult life in Congress, first working as a staffer, then as a member of the House, before being elected to the Senate in 1982.
 
His career was tarnished in 2002 when remarks praising South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond were characterized as endorsing Thurmond’s once segregationist policies and he was subsequently defeated as Senate Majority Leader by Bill Frist, a moderate from Tennessee.
 
Lott’s retirement is another blow to the GOP’s chances of regaining control of the Senate, joining the exits of other Republicans John Warner, Chuck Hagel, and Larry Craig.