The Day HR 1151 Came Within 1 Vote Of Not Making It

Published February 29, 2008, 4:13 p.m. EST

Updated August 26, 2020, 9:45 p.m. EDT

1 Min Read

On the morning of the House Banking Committee mark-up of HR 1151, I thought the bill was going to die prematurely. But it did notbecause of hard work and the power of one vote. And I will never forget that.

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In what is now the Financial Services Committee, the mark-up of the bill had been proceeding tentatively, almost ominously. The atmosphere became more so when the then-committee Chairman, Rep. Jim Leach (R-IA) pulled me aside. “We’re one vote short” of approving the bill, he advised. He told me the committee was “going to take a break now so we can all go to the floor for a vote on another bill.”

He added: “If we cannot get a commitment on that one vote for your bill by the time we come back, we will have to pull the credit union bill from consideration.”

My heart sank.

What’s more, the chairman told me, dozens of amendments were lined up by our opponents that were aimed at dismantling the entire credit union movement. And those amendments would see action if a vote on HR 1151 were heldand we lost.

There was no time to lose.

Turning to the state league presidents who were present in the room, I asked them to immediately look up their congressional contacts, and dig up that vote. After a brief timeand before the committee members returnedwe gathered again and performed a brief tally.

We had found the vote.

And the mark-up proceeded, and the bill was passed out of committeewithout dismantling our movement.

(Little did I know that, within two months, we would faceand overcomea very similar situation in the Senate Banking Committee.)

During the struggle 10 years ago to enact HR 1151, there were highs and lows, sweets and sours. But I will never forget how the strength of one votejust onemade the difference for us, twice.

For me, the lesson was clear: Every single vote counts. It’s the power of our system.