Senate to Vote Today on Credit Cards!

If you haven’t contacted your Senators yet, now is the moment! The Senate is scheduled to vote today on H.R. 627, which passed the House on April 30.  The bill will be amended according to an agreement reached between Senators Dodd and Shelby, who are the Chair and Ranking Member of the Banking Committee respectively.  The amendment (#1058) will change H.R. 627 substantially, making it more like S. 414, Dodd’s Credit CARD Act.  Click here for a comparison of the House and Senate versions.

There have been slews of amendments proposed to alter this bill.  Arianna Huffington discusses one in her post this morning – the Bernie Sanders proposal to cap interest rates at 15%.  Unfortunately the Senate voted and this amendment went down in flames – “Sanders’ amendment only got 33 votes, with 22 Democrats joining those who voted against the interests of their constituents (a shout out to Sen. Grassley, the lone Republican to vote for the amendment).”  This vote demonstrates the resistance a usury cap faces in Congress.

Even so, AFFIL and our Partners are supporting Senator Durbin’s S. 500 which would cap rates at 36% across the nation.  For more coverage of the impending changes to the credit card market, see this article in today’s New York Times.