Credit Card Legislation Passes US House with Compromises, Amendments
Well, the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights passed the US House today. However, an amendment by US Rep. Gutierrez (D-IL), approved by the majority of the House, would make the rules not go into effect until one year after the law’s passage. Seeing as how the US Fed already approved similar rules to go into effect in July 2010, this basically makes the main part of the legislation meaningless.
I don’t know what happened to US Rep. Hinchey’s amendment to cap interest rates at 18%, which I covered in my latest IPS story, but it was not introduced today, although about a dozen other amendments were approved. My guess is, he caved and was begged not to introduce it as an amendment because then so many Democrats will be forced to vote against it and look like the crooked demons they are.
Apparently, one amendment that did pass will make it so that adults under the age of 21 would have to have verification of income and credit before receiving a credit card.
Now we wait for the US Senate to approve their version. The US Senate Cmte passed US Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-CT) bill, which contains some stronger provisions than the US House bill. Apparently, this is instead of US Sen. Schumer’s (D-NY) bill, which mirrored Maloney’s CC Bill of Rights in the House; and instead of US Sen. Sanders’s (I-VT) bill, which would have capped interest rates at 15%.
APN will be seeking answers from Hinchey’s office on the apparent wimp out. We do know, however, that Hinchey supported a bill in the US House that was similar to Sanders’s bill and was a stand-alone bill (not a planned amendment).