Interchange amendment does not belong in housing legislation

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., is again attempting to add costly new credit card mandates to an unrelated bill, the Housing for the 21st Century Act. The amendment is the text of the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA), which would disrupt the credit card payments system, and is strongly opposed by credit unions.

“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. And it would do nothing to protect the American consumer,” said Scott Simpson, president/CEO, America’s Credit Unions. “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.”

More than 6,000 credit union advocates are on Capitol Hill this week as part of the Governmental Affairs Conference (GAC) hill visits, urging lawmakers to reject the Durbin-Marshall credit card mandates and protect consumers’ access to safe and affordable credit.

America’s Credit Unions has launched an ad campaign urging lawmakers to reject the CCCA and related interchange language, continuing this week in conjunction with GAC through a campaign in several Beltway publications.

Marshall unsuccessfully attempted to attach similar language to digital assets legislation in the Senate Agriculture Committee.