WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives is scheduled to voteTuesday on a measure long backed by credit unions to expand theservices they can offer members.

The Credit Union Regulatory Relief Act (H.R. 5519) includes aprovision to adopt underserved areas and new sections that wouldallow credit unions to offer payday lending services to anyone intheir fields of membership and encouraging small businessdevelopment in rural communities. It also would exclude loans tonon-profit religious institutions from credit union businesslending caps and give NCUA additional flexibility to determineinterest rates on loans from federal credit unions based onincreases in money market interest rates or prevailing interestrate levels.

The bill, which is sponsored by Reps. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) andEd Royce (D-Ca.), excludes some of the more comprehensiveprovisions that credit unions have pushed for (and banks haveopposed) such as risk-based capital reform and raising the memberbusiness lending cap from 12.25% to 20%. Those provisions have beenpart of the Credit Union Regulatory Improvements Act, whichKanjorski and Royce have been trying to get passed for the pastfive years.