WASHINGTON–Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) has filed the Credit Card Competition Act as a non-germane amendment to the Housing for the 21st Century Act, which seeks to change card government-mandated routing rules and lower card interchange fees, according to the senator and other supporters.
It is the second time Marshall has attempted to attach the bill as a non-germane amendment. In January, he filed an amended version of the Act as a non-germane amendment to the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act when it was scheduled for markup by the Senate Agriculture Committee.
The amendment failed and was not included in that legislation.
The filing of the amendment comes with some interesting timing. Credit unions in town for America’s Governmental Affairs Conference (GAC) will send thousands of representatives to Capitol Hill on Wednesday as part of the annual Hike the Hill event. Additional visits are also scheduled throughout the week.
Interesting Timing
The amendment revives a proposal that would disrupt the credit card payments system, harm consumers, and small financial institutions, and primarily benefit the largest retailers in the country—not lower the cost of housing for working families.
“While we support the Housing for the 21st Century Act, attaching the Credit Card Competition Act to a housing bill would do nothing to address the housing affordability challenges facing working families, nor would it change the underlying facts,” said America’s Credit Unions President and CEO Scott Simpson. “And it would do nothing to protect the American consumer. This proposal would still disrupt a secure and well-functioning credit card system in ways that hurt consumers and small financial institutions, including increased fraud risk, weakened consumer protections, and limited access to affordable credit for millions of credit union members. Lawmakers should reject any amendments related to credit card mandates.”
