Just because the Tennessee General Assembly is out of session doesn’t mean your league’s advocacy team took the summer off. We’ve been hard at work keeping in touch with legislators during their off-season, continually talking about issues that affect credit unions. This, of course, includes conversations on the proposed interchange legislation that we oppose.
A major portion of our summer has also been on the fundraiser circuit. Thanks to the Tennessee Waltz in 2005, many changes were made to state law governing money in politics. Currently, Tennessee state legislators are not allowed to fundraise when they are in session. This means that summertime and the fall are prime fundraising seasons.
Since the start of this summer fundraising period, we’ve attended 13 different events and contributed $15,500 from our State PAC, with more scheduled in the coming months, primarily focusing on legislators that sit on the House and Senate Commerce Committees.
We’d like to thank the credit unions that already give to the State PAC. It allows us the opportunity to be at the table and keep credit unions top of mind for legislators. As our fearless leader Fred Robinson always says, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”
