The Whitehouse amendment
May 10, 2010 | federal legislation, industry | Comments (0)From Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s (D-RI) op-ed in the Huffington Post:
Credit card companies charge interest rates that until recently would have been illegal in most states, but states are now powerless to stop it. It was not always this way: For the first 202 years of our Republic, each state had the ability to enforce usury laws against any lender doing business with its citizens. Then, in 1978, came an apparently uneventful Supreme Court case – little noticed at the time it was decided.
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It’s time for Congress to restore to the fifty states the power to protect their people. Joined by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Carl Levin (D-MI), I filed an amendment to the Wall Street reform bill, which has been endorsed by the AARP and dozens of consumer groups including the Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Action, the Consumers Union, and the National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of their low-income clients). These groups are on the front lines of consumer protection and know the frustrations of fighting against out-of-state credit card companies that have unilateral discretion to raise rates, often for any or no reason.
Piece is vague on the mechanics of his proposal. Not sure if it affects the payday lending industry.
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