WASHINGTON — Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) said last night there is "at least a 50-50 chance" that his proposal to raise the cap on member business lending will be included in the jobs bill that is being worked on by House leaders.
Kanjorski said the strong need to create jobs could prompt congressional leaders to include the measure, even though it would cause a battle between credit unions and banks.
"In normal times, the leadership doesn't like to have to have force members to choose between banks and credit unions, but these aren't normal times," he said in an interview with Credit Union Times last night during a reception that CUNA held for participants in its National Hike the Hill. "In my district, there were three auto dealers who were saved by loans they received from credit unions, if you multiply that by 435 congressional districts, that's a significant number of jobs."
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Kanjorski discussed the issue with President Obama during a flight on Air Force One last Friday and said Obama was receptive to having his staff look into it but didn't take a position either way.
During his remarks, Kanjorski told attendees that if "you are as good salesmen as you usually are and are obnoxious about it" there is a good chance they will succeed in persuading lawmakers about the merits of their case. He recommended that they emphasize that because banks aren't lending as much as in the past, helping credit unions wouldn't hurt banks.
Kanjorski and Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) have introduced legislation allowing credit unions to make business loans totaling up to 25% of their assets. It would also raise the minimum dollar amount for counting a loan toward the MBL ceiling from the current $50,000 to $250,000 and exempt from the ceiling member business loans made to qualifying underserved areas and to nonprofit religious organizations. It has 34 co-sponsors.
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