WASHINGTON-Three of the hottest, most controversial legislativetopics in the credit union community were not taboo for lawmakersat NAFCU's Congressional Caucus last week. House Financial ServicesCommittee Ranking Member Barney Frank (D-Mass.) expressed hissupport for the Financial Services Regulatory Relief Act (H.R.1375) and said that he did not see what was so controversial aboutit. The banks have been blocking the bill's movement because of thecredit union provisions. However, Frank stated, “Nobody (members ofCongress) is going to put forward anything that cuts back on whatcredit unions can do.” House Financial Institutions and ConsumerCredit Subcommittee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), author of theFair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (H.R. 2622), said hevigorously supported the need for a uniform system of creditinformation sharing. He called it the “democratization” of creditand stated that was what credit unions are all about. Senator TomCarper (D-Del.) reiterated his support for bankruptcy reformlegislation (H.R. 975), currently stalled in the Senate. Creditunions have been strong backers of the bill, particularly theChapter 7 means test, mandatory financial counseling and voluntaryreaffirmations for credit union members.