Three lobbyists for credit unions made the list of the mostinfluential advocates compiled by The Hill newspaper.
CUNA President/CEO Dan Mica was described as “a former member [ofthe U.S. House from Florida] who has been pushing credit unioninterests effectively for more than a decade.”
NAFCU Senior Vice President of Governmental Affairs Dan Berger andDirector of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler “keep federal creditunions plugged into all financial matters.”
The newspaper compiles the list annually based on interviews withlobbyists and congressional staffers. Those on the list “are goodat finding consensus among their members and then communicatingtheir message on Capitol Hill.”
CUNA's and NAFCU's lobbyists have their work cut out for them,representatives of the American Bankers Association and theIndependent Community Bankers of America also made the list of toplobbyists.

Obama Picks Sotomayor
For High Court Spot

President Obama last Tuesday nominated Sonia Sotomayor, afederal appeals court judge to the U.S. Supreme Court.
At a White House announcement he described her as an “inspiringwoman whom I believe will be a great justice” and said she had a“depth of experience and depth of perspective.”
In her remarks she called herself “an ordinary person who has beenblessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences.” She alsosaid that when making decisions “I strive never to forget the realworld consequences of my decisions on individuals, businesses andgovernments.”
If confirmed by the Senate, Sotomayor, a former prosecutor who wasappointed to the federal bench by the first President Bush, wouldbe the first Hispanic and third woman to serve on the high court.She would succeed Justice David Souter, who has announced hisretirement.
Sotomayor was appointed a federal trial judge by Bush and waselevated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit byPresident Clinton. Her record on the federal bench has been that ofcentrist liberal.
Two of her notable decisions as a trial judge were issuing aninjunction against Major League Baseball forbidding it from usingreplacement players during the 2004 players' strike, and issuing anorder allowing The Wall Street Journal to publish the suicide noteof Vince Foster, the deputy White House counsel underClinton.
She is 54 and graduated from Princeton University and Yale LawSchool, where she was editor of the Yale Law Review.
Sotomayor, who was diagnosed as a diabetic when she was eight andraised by her widowed mother for much of her childhood, would bethe sixth Roman Catholic on the current Supreme Court. She grew upin a public housing project in New York City close to YankeeStadium and Obama joked that he hoped her nomination wouldn't behurt among New England lawmakers because she is a lifelong Yankeefan.
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