WASHINGTON – The Democratic Leadership Council, the centrist Democratic group which has been promoting a tax reform plan which would strip credit unions of their tax exemption includes NAFCU as a member. NAFCU has been a member for three years, according to Murray Chanow, NAFCU's senior lobbyist, as part of a plan which sees the group join different Washington political groups to keep the ears of lawmakers. Chanow explained, however, that the Progressive Policy Institute, which is the think tank associated with the DLC, is largely separate from the DLC and does not share staff so there was no way the DLC, nor its members, would have necessarily known the details in the tax reform proposal. “Personally, I just think they had some proposals that they were trying to pay for so they looked through the CBO documents and threw in that line about credit unions,” he said. “It was definitely a failure of due diligence on their part.” CUNA is not currently a member but was until a few years ago, according to CUNA spokesman Pat Keefe.