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House Panel OKs Credit Card Reform
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Aug 02, 2008 11:02am |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Friday, August 1, 2008 05:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By Mike Lillis 08/01/2008
Full Congress Not Likely to Take up the Issue
In a largely symbolic gesture, a House panel on Thursday passed legislation forcing banks to make credit cards more consumer friendly. The bill has little chance of becoming law this year, but the momentum leaves consumer advocates hopeful that reforms could arrive in 2009.
The vote in the House Financial Services Committee was 39 to 27. Two Republicans, Reps. Walter Jones (N.C.) and Christopher Shays (Conn.), broke party ranks to join all voting Democrats in supporting the bill.
The vote follows months of partisan haggling over how to reform an industry that both sides agree needs discipline. House Democrats favor the committee-passed legislation -- called the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights -- that would add transparency to credit card contracts and curb predatory lending practices used by some issuers. Republicans prefer to defer the responsibility to regulators at the Federal Reserve, which proposed reforms in May but isn't expected to finalize them until later this year -- at the earliest.
The debate largely centered on Congress's role to shield consumers from industry abuses at a time when debts are rising. Nationwide, debt attributable to revolving credit jumped to $962 billion in May -- up from $941 billion in December and $771 billion five years ago, according to a July report from the Federal Reserve. |
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