WASHINGTON-Last Friday was declared a national day of mourningby President George W. Bush as former President Ronald Reagan, 93,was laid to rest. Many may not remember, but Reagan'sAdministration almost put a tax burden on credit unions. In May1985, during the Reagan Administration, the Treasury Departmentintroduced a bill to simplify the tax system, which included taxingcredit unions of $5 million or more, NAFCU Communications ManagerJohn Zimmerman said. After a number of representatives from thecredit union community testified before the House Ways and MeansCommittee, the provision was removed in October of that year andthe Tax Reform Act of 1986 was eventually signed into law. Reagandid not however have a bad relationship with credit unions. Overthe eight years Ronald Reagan was president (1980-1988), creditunion representatives met with him on a couple of occasions, ademonstration of credit unions' growing political prowess. CUNASenior Vice President of Governmental Affairs John McKechnie metwith President Reagan at a political function in 1988. NAFCU SeniorVice President and General Counsel Bill Donovan had the opportunityto meet Reagan on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of thesigning of the Federal Credit Union Act on October 24, 1984. OnAugust 11, 1983, President Reagan signed a congressional resolutionmaking the week of June 24, 1984 “Federal Credit Union Week.” Thecredit union community had tried to arrange for a public billsigning, but it was not possible, so the photo was taken at anevent held after the bill signing. CUNA Vice President ofLegislative Affairs and Senior Legislative Counsel Gary Kohnexplained that Reagan was lying in state last Wednesday evening andall day Thursday in Washington, “so that will definitely have animpact on what happens here in Washington this week.” Fridaymorning his body was being sent back home to California. Reagan'sdeath has caused some delay in the already waning congressionalschedule. Concrete evidence of this was the closing of most of thefederal government, including both chambers of Congress and NCUA,on Friday, June 11. Additionally, the Senate Banking Committeehearing on the renomination of Alan Greenspan as chairman of theFederal Reserve Board was postponed from June 10 to June [email protected]