CUNA and NAFCU have been petitioning Congress to add language expanding credit union ability to offer member business loans to two jobs bills that are making their way through the legislative process.

CUNA has written Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) and Ranking Member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) in support of including Sen. Mark Udall's (D-Colo.) Small Business Lending Enhancement Act (S. 509) in whatever job and economic stimulus bill that the Senate might pass.

“The legislation enjoys bipartisan support in the Senate and the House as well as the endorsement of the Department of Treasury,” CUNA wrote in its March 6 letter. “We estimate that if this bill became law, credit unions could lend an additional $13 billion to small businesses, helping them create 140,000 new jobs in the first year after enactment, at no cost to taxpayers.”

The association also attacked banker opposition to the measure.

“No one should forget that the banks that oppose S. 509 bill are the same banks Congress bailed out in 2008 with TARP, the same banks to which Congress made available $30 billion of taxpayer money to lend to small businesses, the same banks that took only a fraction of that money and used most of what they took to refinance their TARP obligations,” CUNA charged.

NAFCU wrote House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in support of the Small Business Lending Enhancement Act (H.R. 1418) that would also ease the burden of the MBL cap on credit unions.

The act would “raise the member business lending cap in a sound way for eligible credit unions and create jobs without spending a dime of taxpayer funds,” NAFCU wrote in its March 5 letter. “This is in stark contrast to the legislation that created the multibillion dollar Small Business Lending Fund for community banks, which has subsequently come under sharp criticism from members on both sides of the aisle. NAFCU strongly urges the House to consider raising the member business lending cap on credit unions in any legislative package put forward to create jobs.”