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 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.

ATR and the greater free-market community has consistently opposed this legislation:

Coalition Letters

In March 2022, ATR led a coalition letter establishing a broad center-right opposition to the policy of extending the Durbin amendment to credit cards.
In August 2022, ATR organized a coalition letter with nearly 30 free-market groups urging members of Congress to oppose the CCCA.
In October 2022, ATR organized a coalition letter opposing the addition of the CCCA and a separate credit card regulation amendment from being added to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023.

Op-Eds

In February 2023, Townhall published an op-ed by ATR that explains how legislation like CCCA will put consumer privacy at risk.
In 2022, RealClearMarkets published one ATR op-ed on how CCCA empowers the Federal Reserve to restrict consumer choice, and another op-ed on the effect of government intervention in payment networks.
In August 2021, The Hill published an ATR op-ed on why expanding the Durbin Amendment (regulation of debit cards in the Dodd-Frank Act) to apply to credit cards is a bad idea.

Blog Posts

In March 2022, ATR published an article outlining all the efforts it had led in the previous year to oppose the credit card regulations pushed by Democrats.
In September 2022, ATR published a piece that addressed the many problems in the Credit Card Competition Act of 2022.
In January 2023, ATR created a post that functioned as a primer on CCCA and credit card regulation. The article explains the history of and outlook for credit card regulation while also articulating why the center-right community remains so steadfastly opposed to it.

ATR will continue to oppose CCCA and any bill that attempts to impose government restrictions that will largely eliminate credit card rewards options for consumers and limit the amount of revenue that can be used for consumer data privacy and security.

For more articles and information on the harmful effects of this bill, you can check out saveourpoints.org.