or association, or to groups within a well-defined neighborhood, community or rural district." A 1982 Interpretive Ruling and Policy Statement (IRPS) 82-4 allowed many credit unions to grow their memberships and expand into multiple states. Credit union membership reached 71 million members by 1997, more than double the number of members in 1991. This expansion prompted banks to challenge the 1982 regulation as illegal, a challenge upheld in a 1998 U.S. Supreme Court decision, NCUA v. First National Bank & Trust. Within five months, both houses of Congress passed a bill signed by President Clinton to overturn the Court's decision. Legally, and for tax purposes, credit unions in the US are considered to be non-profit organizations. Banks argue that this status exempts credit unions from many federal and state taxes, giving credit unions a competitive advantage. As of 2003, U.S. governmental regulatory agencies require that credit unions restrict their membership to defined segments of the population, such as people who live, work, worship, or attend school in a well-defined geographic area; employees of specific companies or trades; members of specific non-profit groups, including labor unions, alumni associations, conservation or other advocacy organizations, lodges, churches, or the like; or a particular occupational group, such as teachers, doctors, etc. In the US this is referred to as a credit union's "field of membership", and internationally the term bond of association is used. Credit unions may typically be chartered to serve a specific employee or associational group or groups (often called a Select Employee Group or "SEG Charter"), all members of a trade, industry, or profession (a "TIP Charter"), or have a "Community Charter" (typically a field of membership of anyone who lives, works, goes to school, or attends religious services in a particular city, county, or counties). When a credit union converts to a Community Charter from a SEG Charter or TIP Charter, it can continue to serve its existing members as well as anyone who lives, works, worships, or attends school within its new geographical field of membership, but cannot admit new members from its former SEG(s) or TIP (unless the group in question is located within "the new community credit union's boundaries"). Similarly, a credit union that converts to a TIP or SEG charter from a different charter type can no longer admit new members from its old field of membership. Typically, members' families – such as immediate family or