Side With Consumers: Stop the CCCA
ATR opposes the Credit Card Competition Act and urges members of Congress to oppose passage.
If enacted the bill will likely do four things:
- Largely eliminate credit card rewards programs
- Put consumers personal privacy at risk because it will disincentivize future investment in fraud protection and enhanced cybersecurity
- Reduce the availability of revolving lines of credit
- Enable large retailers to pad their pockets while consumers and small businesses will see little to no savings at all
In response to CCCA’s reintroduction, Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, issued the following statement:
The Credit Card Competition Act does not, as its name implies, promote competition. The bill is an expansion of big-government policies from the Dodd-Frank Act that largely regulated debit card rewards programs out of existence in 2010. The bill empowers the Federal Reserve to regulate consumers’ credit card purchases by restricting how payments can be routed over credit card networks and forcing networks to share proprietary payment technology. These legislative provisions will reduce the interchange fee revenue that is used by credit unions and small community banks to fund better consumer data privacy protections and credit card rewards programs through points, cash back, and co-branded airline cards. This will only limit service options and perks that millions of Americans who choose to use electronic forms of payment enjoy every day. Lining woke special interest groups’ pockets should not be favored over the best interests of the consumer.
Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform
Ask yourself this: should the federal government intervene in negotiations between private parties? If you say no, then you should oppose the Durbin amendment and any extension of it to credit cards. That is exactly what it is, encroachment of the federal government into private business.
The Durbin amendment is not conservative policy.
Congress should focus on promoting competition in the payments system by eliminating regulations, not creating more.
Americans for Tax Reform, Op-ed in The Hill
Who Supports the Durbin Amendment?
- Democrats and merchants
- Using the Durbin amendment, rent-seeking merchants leveraged the federal government to pad their profits, and Democrats were more than happy to oblige.
- The Biden administration supports the Durbin Amendment
- The Biden DOJ and FTC submitted letters of support for a Federal Reserve rule aimed at clarifying routing provisions in the Durbin Amendment
- Biden supports federal intervention in private contracts between private parties
- Therefore, any Republican member in support of extending the Durbin Amendment to credit cards is effectively aligning themselves with the Biden administration. Even if “only” on the routing provisions of Durbin.
Coalition Letter Opposing the Credit Card Competition Act
Click here to read the full letter:
Durbin Plan
ATR Opposes Reintroduction of Credit Card Competition Act
Today, Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) reintroduced the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA). Reps. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) introduced the House companion bill. ATR opposes the reintroduction of CCCA and urges members of Congress to oppose passage. If…
Durbin Plan
ATR Response to NYT Op-Ed: “The Dirty Little Secret of Credit Card Rewards Programs”
Chenzi Xu and Jeffrey Reppucci’s op-ed in The New York Times, “The Dirty Little Secret of Credit Card Rewards Programs,” (op-ed, March 4) weaves together a facile understanding of rewards. They point out that “when credit card rewards increase” interchange fees do too. Of course, they do. Rewards programs cannot operate without…
Durbin Plan
ATR Op-Ed in Townhall: Consumer Privacy at Risk under Credit Card Competition Act
On February 26, 2023, Townhall published an op-ed by ATR Federal Affairs Manager Bryan Bashur. The op-ed explains how legislation like the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) will put consumer privacy at risk. The piece begins by explaining how the CCCA threatens the privacy of payment transactions that…
Durbin Plan
Q&A on Credit Card Regulation
Americans for Tax Reform has been consistently opposed to government regulation of debit and credit card transactions. Last year, ATR opposed the Credit Card Competition Act (117th Congress; S. 4674) because, if enacted, it would have unnecessarily regulated credit card transactions. The bill as introduced was also an extension of the onerous Durbin…
Durbin Plan
ATR Op-Ed in RealClearMarkets: “Credit Card Regulation Empowers the Fed to Restrict Consumer Choice”
via RealClearMarkets Instead of promoting competition, the Credit Card Competition Act of 2022 expands the power of the Federal Reserve to distort the supply and demand of the credit card market to a point where consumers will see rewards programs largely disappear. This government intervention will lead to fewer…
Durbin Plan
2022 Coalition Letter Opposing the Credit Card Competition Act
Click here to read the full letter:…
Durbin Plan
ATR Opposes Credit Card Competition Act of 2022
Americans for Tax Reform vehemently opposes the Credit Card Competition Act of 2022. The bill is sponsored by Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.). If enacted, the bill would alter the landscape of credit cards to where multibillion-dollar retailers would gain significant control of payment processing at the expense…
Durbin Plan
Partisan FTC and DOJ Misconstrue Debit Card Landscape
Partisanship and left-wing extremism epitomize the Biden administration. This has made it exceedingly difficult for the administration to finalize a deal with moderate Democrats on the multi trillion-dollar tax-and-spend package. What is important to note though is that this partisanship extends beyond the doors of the White House and is…
Durbin Plan
Americans for Tax Reform Coalition Letter on the Durbin Amendment
Click here to view the full letter…
Durbin Plan
ATR Op-Ed in RealClearMarkets: “Let’s Block Government Intervention In Market-Driven Payment Systems”
via RealClearMarkets The federal government’s distortion of the payment transaction market has raised costs and reduced revenues for banks and credit unions while providing no benefits to consumers. If Congress or the Biden administration further encroaches on this market via legislation or executive action, consumers will continue to see…
Durbin Plan
ATR Strongly Opposes Durbin Amendment Expansion to Credit Cards
The Durbin amendment is a federal government price control. It is in clear opposition to conservative policy and ideals. Expansion of the Durbin amendment to credit cards will significantly harm consumers, community banks, and credit unions. ATR has produced several publications and documents outlining the harmful effects of the Durbin…
Durbin Plan
ATR Op-Ed in The Hill: “The Durbin amendment is a disaster for banks — don’t expand it to credit cards”
via The Hill Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-Ill.) eponymous amendment to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is the epitome of unnecessary federal overreach. Now, some lawmakers are discussing the expansion of the Durbin amendment to credit cards. The continuation of this bad…
Durbin Plan
Oppose Extension of Durbin Amendment to Credit Cards
Ask yourself this: should the federal government intervene in negotiations between private parties? If you say no, then you should oppose the Durbin amendment and any extension of it to credit cards. That is exactly what it is, encroachment of the federal government into private business. The Durbin amendment is…
Durbin Plan
ATR Leads Coalition to Prevent Further Expansion of the Durbin Amendment
Recently, a group of free-market organizations, led by Americans for Tax Reform Presidents Grover Norquist, sent a letter to Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Service Committee leadership opposing further attempts to expand the Durbin Amendment. Retail trade associations have continued to ask for further carve outs and price controls from…