Excerpt:
Republican senators on Wednesday blocked an effort to debate a bill that would prevent credit card companies from raising interest rates, fees and finance charges before new regulations come into effect in February.
Earlier this year, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), who heads the Senate Banking Committee, wrote and passed through the Senate the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act, which requires credit card issuers to give customers advance notice before hiking rates and fees.
In response to the resulting interest rate hikes, Dodd also authored a bill called the Credit Card Rate Freeze Act. The proposed laws would freeze credit card rates where they are now until the new law comes into effect and require credit card companies to review all interest hikes going back to the beginning of 2009 to see if customers were overcharged. Dodd, on Wednesday afternoon, asked for unanimous consent to move the bill forward.
“On behalf of several senators on this side of the aisle, I object,” said Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS). And that was the end of it.
Rep, Betsy Markey (D-CO) who worked on the House version of the bill, said “I’m extremely disappointed that the financial health of millions of American taxpayers has been completely brushed aside by a handful of Wall Street banking interests in the US Senate.”
Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d20-GOP-blocks-bill-to-freeze-credit-card-interest-rate-hikes