Yesterday the DC City Council voted 12-0-1 to effectively ban payday lending by subjecting it to usury ceilings. A second confirmation vote will occur in the fall. The notable abstention to the unanimous vote was from deposed former mayor Marion Barry (now the councilmember from Ward 8). Barry once supported the bill. Now, his soundbites sound as if they were written by one of the pack of payday lender lobbyists scurrying about town hoping to reverse this vote in the fall. Councilmember Mary Cheh (Ward 3) is championing Bill 17-132, the "Payday Lenders Consumer Protection Act of 2007," which sailed through committee mark up with no amendments on July 5 with a 3-1 vote. The bill would repeal the exemption for payday lenders from the District's 24% usury cap, a carve out that the payday lenders have benefited from since 1998.