Bachus Circumspect About Possible Committee Chairmanship, Reg Relief Remains on the Table

WASHINGTON — First thing’s first, House Financial Services Committee member–and chairman hopeful–Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) said of a committee agenda for the 110th Congress. “Nov. 7 is the election. I’d rather deal with the things we know we have to and then on Nov. 7,” he said, “then we start worrying about [the chairmanship]. I’m concerned about the majority.” Regardless of who is the next committee chairman, Bachus sees data security as one of the most urgent issues. “I spoke to credit unions in my own state, two of them had to reissue–one 15,000 credit cards and one 5,000,” he explained. The members are wondering what went wrong, but the credit unions did nothing wrong. This year the Financial Services and Energy & Commerce committees had a turf battle over the matter and none of the handful of bills introduced made much progress. “I can’t say why the parties haven’t gotten together,” Bachus added, though he admitted he was not closely involved with those negotiations.