The House Financial Services Committee has scheduled a vote, or markup, of HR 5244, the PIRG-backed Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights, to begin Wednesday at 2pm. Some other bills will also be voted on, so the event will most likely become a multi-day vote-a-rama.
After the Federal Reserve proposed surprisingly tough unfair and deceptive practices rules (still time to comment) that were quite similar to the original HR 5244, and in some ways stronger, the sponsors, subcommittee chairwoman Carolyn Maloney and Chairman Barney Frank, have modified the "committee print" of the bill to be considered to be virtually the same as the Fed proposal.
Congress should approve the bill: If it does, it in effect codifies into law a good proposed rule, which would take away two key uncertainties of waiting for the Fed: (1) That the final rule ends up weaker than the proposed rule after industry comments (possibly a problem) and (2) that the banks sue to delay, harass and overturn the rule (definitely a problem).
The banks are pulling out all the stops to defeat it. In 19 years in DC, I am unaware of any banking committee ever approving a bill that the credit card industry opposed. In 1987, before I got here, disclosure legislation was approved, resulting in the so-called Schumer Box on solicitations. But legislation making a variety of common bank practices illegal? Never. This is a big vote. We'll see which members resist the pressure from the banks to do the wrong thing. More information here in our letter to the committee.
Of course, I am aware that legislation on credit card interchange fees imposed on merchants passed the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month, but that, after all, is the Judiciary Committee, an away game. Plus, the banks were up against another powerful interest, small business. It was a big defeat for credit card companies, which means they are working even harder to delay or block or defeat legislation on their home field.
