[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 74 (Thursday, May 14, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S5496]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             CREDIT CARDHOLDERS' BILL OF RIGHTS ACT OF 2009

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, before the leaders leave the floor, I thank 
the majority leader and the Republican leader for their tremendous help 
in putting this agreement together. I look forward to a favorable vote 
on Tuesday. I wanted them to know how much I and the consumers in this 
country appreciate immensely the work of the leaders. I thank, 
particularly, the majority leader, Harry Reid, for his involvement to 
make it possible for us to get to this moment. I also include Senator 
Shelby and others.
  I hoped to be able to complete the bill today. Obviously, that didn't 
happen. We have reached a framework by which we can vote on Tuesday. 
There will be a managers' amendment, and we hope to be able to 
accommodate this agreement in that package. It doesn't suggest that 
every amendment will be agreed to. Where we can, we will try to do 
that.
  This is a strong bill. I thank the members of the Banking Committee--
both Democrats and Republicans--who worked on it. I am grateful to 
Senator Shelby and his staff for bringing us to this moment in the 
hopes that on Tuesday we will have the final conclusion of this effort.
  I thank the other body, as well, particularly Chairman Barney Frank, 
from Massachusetts, for his leadership. He has done a masterful job in 
the other body in bringing Democrats and Republicans together with an 
overwhelming vote in that Chamber in support of credit card reform. We 
will talk over the weekend, as we usually do, to see if we cannot 
resolve any outstanding issues that will allow this bill to quickly 
arrive on the President's desk. The President said he wants it before 
Memorial Day. I think we can do that. My hope is that we will complete 
the work on Tuesday and, by the end of next week, maybe we can send the 
bill to the President for his signature.
  I cannot think of a better message to the American people. I say that 
while my colleagues and the President would like a bill, the people we 
represent need a bill to provide economic relief for them. That was the 
design of this legislation--to provide needed economic relief for 
millions of Americans, who have watched rates and fees go through the 
ceiling.
  This bill is not going to solve every economic problem. For the first 
time that I know of in the history of the Congress, despite these cards 
being available for half a century and more, in some cases, we are 
taking a step to reform an industry that, frankly, has gotten out of 
control when it comes to fees and rates, as we have witnessed with 70 
million accounts having interest rates raised in the last couple of 
years, and one out of every four families being adversely affected.
  Every member of the Chamber can tell an anecdote about constituents 
who have faced difficulties with credit card fees and interest rate 
hikes. I think we are all pleased that we are finally doing something 
in a meaningful way on this. It is not the end of the discussion.
  There are a lot of other aspects of the industry that need reform as 
well. My colleagues are anxious to get to those, including the 
interchange issue, which retailers have talked to me about for years. 
We can try to provide relief for them. We don't provide real relief in 
this bill, except a study that Senators Corker, Durbin, and others, 
including myself, want to be done to get answers on how to reform the 
interchange fees issue. I hope we can get answers to that and talk 
about a legislative fix in that area as well. This bill avoids that 
question, not because we disagree with reforming the interchange fee 
but we felt it was more than we could take on with this bill.
  This bill only came out of the Banking Committee with a 1-vote 
margin, 12 to 11. It is a very delicate balance. We needed to be 
careful not to tilt this legislation to such a degree that we would 
have lost the opportunity to provide any reform at all. We are not 
potentates here; we have to work with each other. We have done that in 
this case and produced a very fine piece of legislation.
  I hope my colleagues will lend their support to this legislation when 
we have the final consideration of it on Tuesday.

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