Congress has two opportunities this year to reach back to the Main Street voters who elected them. Neither costs taxpayers a dime. Two bills would enable credit unions to provide affordable capital to consumers and to small businesses. It makes sense, then, for Congress to act this year to enact the Capital Access for Small Business and Jobs Act (H.R. 3993) and the Small Business Lending Enhancement Act (H.R. 1418 and S.2231)

Consumers are migrating to credit unions to escape the banks that have denied them loans. Those new members are finding in credit unions the same safe and sound harbor for their money that our long-term members have enjoyed since the Great Depression. They're also finding personal service, advanced technology, thousands of networked ATMs they can use surcharge-free, shared branching and a full suite of advanced banking services offered in cooperative environments where the local connection is as strong as ever.

Yet the credit union movement faces a mixed blessing. Overly rigid and antiquated capital requirements are preventing many well-capitalized credit unions from providing an even higher level of service to the very consumers who are seeking us out. Those regulations–limiting our ability to lend out more of our assets to small businesses as well as to raise supplemental capital–are both outdated and unnecessary.