Update: Republicans and Democrats alike were incredulous over the card associations' (Mastercard and Visa) testimony. Here is my testimony (my copy here is low bandwidth but go here on the committee site a clunkier apparently scanned high-bandwidth copy.

One point I made at the hearing is that there is similarity between the merchants' helpless plight and that of consumers. For many years the card issuers got away with any and all unfair tricks and traps for consumers because the regulator/cheerleader known as the OCC let them. Now, the Fed has stepped in to help consumers. Now, the Judiciary Committee appears to be playing the same role as the Fed: it has the merchants' back in their fight with the card associations.

Original post: The second highest cost of running a convenience store is credit card fees. That raises the costs for all consumers, including cash customers, at the store and at the pump. We testify today before the Antitrust Task Force of the House Judiciary Committee on interchange fees imposed on merchants by credit card companies. Link to previous testimony.