There's a saying that elections have consequences, and the recent political earthquake will definitely have more than its share. Based on early reports from Capitol Hill, for the first time in 30-plus years there is a real chance that comprehensive tax reform will move through Congress and become law. And while there is no congressional proposal on paper targeting the credit union tax exemption, you can be sure that 2017 will feature more intense banker attacks as Congress puts the tax code on the table and begins work on overhauling the 74,608-page document.

Why will next year be any different than the false starts on taxation we've seen in recent years? Consider the following developments that have occurred in the days since the election of a Republican, Donald Trump, and retention of Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress:

• Both House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have made public comments about using a maneuver called the Budget Reconciliation process to pass big, controversial reforms next year. The Budget Reconciliation is expected to be the vehicle because it moves through both chambers under expedited rules and only takes a simple majority to pass.

• Tax reform is one of the most frequently mentioned issues to be dealt with in a Budget Reconciliation bill, second only to the effort to "repeal and replace" Obamacare (which was also passed via a reconciliation bill in 2010). House leadership staff say that a specific plan has already been agreed upon – there will be two Budget Resolution bills next year. The first would be in January and February, aimed at repealing most of Obamacare. The second would be introduced in the spring and would be a broad tax reform bill.

• In an indication of the central place that tax reform will occupy in the next administration, Congressman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) was named to the executive committee of the Trump transition team. His name should sound familiar: Nunes, a respected senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, was the author of a tax reform proposal earlier this year that explicitly protected the credit union tax exemption. His prominent role in the Trump hierarchy is a definite plus for credit unions.

These 2016 signs point to a 2017 congressional agenda featuring tax reform. Credit unions should take advantage of this gift of an early warning to prepare. Here are a couple of suggestions:

First, step up contacts with key players on Capitol Hill. This includes leadership in both chambers, plus every member of the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees. Republicans will be most important, but it would be a mistake to not involve Democratic members as well. A House Ways and Means Committee Republican staffer told me that he had more than 40 meeting requests from tax lobbyists during the first week of the Lame Duck session of Congress – the fabled "Showdown at Gucci Gulch" (the name given to the spectacle of tax lobbyists circling the tax committees during the 1986 rewrite) may be in for a rerun.