Odds of Credit Card Reform in Congress
What are the odds for passage of one of the Congressional credit card reform bills?
Roderick Hills, professor of public law at NYU, told TheStreet.com that although Republicans would work hard to water down the CARD Act, they are less likely to filibuster in an election year after credit cards and banking have been in the news.
However, don’t expect Congressional proposals to work quickly through Congress. It is expected that any credit card reform measures will take months to work their way through Congress and then would face signature by President Bush - if he is still President when they pass.
Robert Reich of the University of California-Berkeley says that the going will be rough in the House and even rougher in the Senate. Only 11 of 36 Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee have backed the bill, and the American Bankers Association is a powerful lobby.
Directly on the point of the power of the credit card industry lobby, the American Express recently reported that it spent $770,000 in the first quarter on lobbying efforts, according to CNN. Not nearly enough to put it on the list of the top 10 lobbying clients in 2008 at the Center for Responsive Politics but still a lot of coin.
Reich pins his hopes for credit card reform on the Federal Reserve, instead.
