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We're tired of being screwed," Syracuse leader Claire McGrath said to the four federal bank regulatory agencies at last year's NPA conference.

In response, the regulators participated in a series of seven hearings on reforming the Community Reinvestment Act, a law passed in 1977 in the interest of getting banks to make loans in all communities, regardless of income levels or race.

These hearings have given grassroots community groups from across the country an opportunity to tell the regulators the reality of lending in their communities. At each hearing, community groups emphasized that while 97% of banks currently receive satisfactory CRA ratings or better from the regulators, not all banks are doing a satisfactory job in their communities.

NPA members met with high-ranking members of the federal banking regulators in mid-March to discuss making strong changes to CRA. Coming off that meeting, NPA will follow up with the regulators at the conference and throughout the next year to insure strong CRA reforms.

The NPA workshop will sum up the victories and wins that groups need to keep working on for the next year. The workshop will also discuss the scheduled 2002 rewrite of the agencies' CRA regulations and NPA is well-positioned to be a significant part of that process.