[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 89 (Tuesday, June 15, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1100-E1101]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  EXTENDING EFFECTIVE DATE OF GIFT CARD PROVISIONS OF CREDIT CARD LAW

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. DANIEL B. MAFFEI

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 14, 2010

  Mr. MAFFEI. Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the Environmentally 
Conscious Option Gift Card Act, or ECO-Gift Card Act. This bill gives 
gift card producers until January 31, 2011, to comply with several 
provisions of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and 
Disclosure, CARD, Act that we passed last year. The current deadline is 
August 22, 2010, and producers have found that the quick deadline 
presented many issues.
  If the deadline remains the same, most gift cards on the shelves of 
stores and in warehouses, which were produced before the law

[[Page E1101]]

passed, will have to be removed and destroyed, and issuers and 
merchants will have to produce new cards that comply with the Fed 
rules.
  In addition to being an onerous burden on gift card issuers and 
merchants who sell the cards, the forced destruction of tens of 
millions of noncompliant cards would also result in needless 
environmental waste. The industry estimates that over 100 million gift 
cards would need to be destroyed and replaced, a waste volume that 
would take up more than eight football fields buried 12 feet deep in 
such cards.
  This extension of the deadline will give issuers and merchants a more 
reasonable transition period, and prevent a significant amount of 
environmental waste.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill and look forward to its 
passage.

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