Hike the Hill now has a hometown cousin, "Hike at Home," and some credit union trade groups are starting to take advantage of the GOP's new House strategy to get closer to constituents.
The latest to make use of the new House leadership practice of scheduling one week a month visits by GOP Congressmen in local districts is the Credit Union Association of New York, whose top leadership met this week with a Utica lawmaker.
"We did our first Congressional visit with Rep. Hanna and we expect to focus more of these visits on the new membership and leadership throughout this congressional session," said a spokeswoman for CUANY, whose top brass met with U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna in his Utica office.
Taking a cue from House Speaker Rep. John Boehner, GOP Congressmen are expected to spend more time at home in monthly "work at home" visits, CUNA officials noted in coining the "Hike at Home" phrase.
The spokeswoman for CUANY said her trade group hopes now "to be able to schedule at home visits with all of the New York representatives" during the current session,
In the meeting with Rep. Hanna, the CUANY delegation discussed several key federal issues, including member business lending, capital reform and interchange.
"The credit union leaders did an excellent job of illustrating how each of the issues impacts their credit unions and their members and that combined with Congressman Hanna's business knowledge, made for a very productive meeting," said Michael Lanotte, senior vice president and general counsel for CUANY.
