WASHINGTON – The Credit Union Regulatory Improvements Act (H.R. 2317) has 121 lawmakers signed on in support of the bill, which sounds like a lot, but what do 121 legislators really amount to?

It is more than half way to the majority of votes needed to pass something in the 436-member House of Representatives. It means that since it was introduced this Congress, May 12, 2005, on average a federal legislator has become a co-sponsor to CURIA every three calendar days. That's approximately one every other business day. And if you go according to the legislative calendar it is probably at least one new co-sponsor every day.

Title I of the bill provides the framework for a risk-based capital system for credit unions. Title II encompasses provisions considered to be pertaining to economic growth, including expanding the business lending cap to 20% of assets and raising the definition of a member business loan from $50,000 up to $100,000. Regulatory modernization is in Title III, which would allow credit unions to continue low-cost leases on military installations, expand investment opportunities, change the 12-year maturity limit on loans to 15 years, put some credit union governance issues in the institutions' hands, raise the voting minimum for a conversion to a mutual savings bank, and exempt credit unions from pre-merger notification requirements as other financial institutions are, among other things. [email protected]