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H.R. 1151, the Credit Union Membership Access Act, would restore multiple-group membership opportunities lost in a U.S. Supreme Court decision last February. That decision denies access to credit unions for 62% of the American work force and makes critical lawmaker support of H.R. 1151.
The House overwhelmingly passed the bill in April, while a vote in the Senate is expected this month.
"There are many reasons senators should support [H.R. 1151, The Credit Union Membership Access Act]," says Steve Brobeck, executive director of the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), a nonprofit organization of some 240 consumer advocacy groups in Washington, D.C. Here are CFA’s top 10:
- For more than a century, credit unions have been one of our nation’s most successful voluntary organizations.
- Existing members of credit unions should not have to give up their credit union membership.
- Millions of consumers who do not currently belong to a credit union should not lose the ability to join one.
- Credit unions charge much lower prices--lower fees and lower loan rates--than do for-profit institutions.
- In the future, this consumer choice will become even more important as a few huge financial services companies emerge.
- Even consumers who remain customers of for-profit banking institutions benefit from the ability to join a credit union.
- The 1934 law on which the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled is out of date and needs to be modernized to suit current realities.
- The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly supports this modernization and preservation of the ability of consumers to join a credit union.
- Consumer groups representing tens of millions of Americans strongly support Senate action to preserve this consumer choice.
- Most important, the American people want all consumers to have the ability to join a credit union.
So send your senator a message now. Ask him or her to support consumer choice to join a credit union and preserve Americans’ right to affordable financial services.
 
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