[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1610 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1610

To amend the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 to limit the 
annual percentage rate of interest that may be charged by recipients of 
  financial assistance under such Act with respect to consumer credit 
                 card accounts, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 19, 2009

  Ms. Speier introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 to limit the 
annual percentage rate of interest that may be charged by recipients of 
  financial assistance under such Act with respect to consumer credit 
                 card accounts, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Interest Rate Equity Act'' or the 
``IRE Act''.

SEC. 2. CEILING ON CONSUMER CREDIT CARD INTEREST RATES IMPOSED BY TARP 
              RECIPIENTS.

    (a) In General.--Section 113 of the Emergency Economic 
Stabilization Act of 2008 (12 U.S.C. 5223) is amended by adding at the 
end the following new subsection:
    ``(e) Ceiling on Consumer Credit Card Rates.--
            ``(1) In general.--In the case of any financial institution 
        which receives financial assistance under this title and 
        extends credit to any consumer through a credit card account 
        under an open end consumer credit plan, the annual percentage 
        rate applicable to any outstanding balance on any such account 
        while any such assistance is outstanding may not exceed 18 
        percent.
            ``(2) Definitions.--For purposes of this subsection, the 
        terms `consumer', `credit', `credit card', and `open end credit 
        plan' have the same meanings as in section 103 of the Truth in 
        Lending Act and the term `annual percentage rate' means the 
        annual percentage as determined in accordance with section 107 
        of such Act.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
apply to any finance charge imposed after the end of the 30-day period 
beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act on any amount 
outstanding after the end of such period under a credit card account 
under an open end consumer credit plan.
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