The bill was introduced Sept. 20 by U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) and declares as its purpose: “To adopt the seven immediate reforms recommended by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to reduce spending and make the Federal Government more efficient.”

Nate Muniz, public and government relations specialist with the $4 billion Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union, said despite the introduction date, its details are just now being published. He also said he's not surprised eliminating the tax exemption has now been legislatively proposed, but that he also does not think it will easily pass.

“I think we felt it was going to come sooner or a later. It was just a matter of time,” he said Wednesday afternoon. “But it's part of a long list of exemptions, all of which have competing interests. I just wish it would have waited until next year, given the climate we're in now.”

Some of the other specific exemptions included in the measure include those for citizens living abroad, gross income of insurance contracts, interest on qualified veterans' mortgage bonds, merchant marine capital construction, film and television productions and coal production.

A companion Senate measure does not contain the credit union exemption specifically, Muniz said he has been told.

The House bill was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, the House document said, “in addition to the Committees on Oversight and Government Reform, House Administration, Rules, and the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.”

The full text of the bill is available online.