Letter: Many CU Congressional Allies Are Not Friends

In a Guest Opinion article in Credit Union Times [Jan. 23 issue, page xx], former CUNA president Dan Mica, now an industry consultant, shared his forecast for the 113th Congress. His prediction that measuring the success of the next two years by what does not occur rather than by what does occur would appear to be spot-on. His belief that the major area of activity in Washington will shift to the regulatory arena also rings true. Too bad he didn’t stop there. 

Mica’s ideas about who is or is not a friend of the credit union industry couldn’t be further off-base. His citations of former Rep. Barney Frank, current ranking minority member on the House Financial Services Committee Rep. Maxine Waters, and Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Johnson as credit union allies are hard to swallow. And designating newly elected Sen. Elizabeth Warren–the instigator of the onerous Consumer Financial Protection Bureau–as a credit union champion is jaw-dropping incredulous. These elected officials are at best described as frenemies. Whatever good they might have done for credit unions in the past was utterly destroyed by recent actions.