WASHINGTON – The Democratic Leadership Council, the centristDemocratic group which has been promoting a tax reform plan whichwould strip credit unions of their tax exemption includes NAFCU asa member. NAFCU has been a member for three years, according toMurray Chanow, NAFCU's senior lobbyist, as part of a plan whichsees the group join different Washington political groups to keepthe ears of lawmakers. Chanow explained, however, that theProgressive Policy Institute, which is the think tank associatedwith the DLC, is largely separate from the DLC and does not sharestaff so there was no way the DLC, nor its members, would havenecessarily known the details in the tax reform proposal.“Personally, I just think they had some proposals that they weretrying to pay for so they looked through the CBO documents andthrew in that line about credit unions,” he said. “It wasdefinitely a failure of due diligence on their part.” CUNA is notcurrently a member but was until a few years ago, according to CUNAspokesman Pat Keefe.